 Suyash Srivastava
Jaipur: With some all-round performance from most of its players, Rajasthan Royals defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 22 runs on their home ground at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur on Sunday.
Kolkata skipper Gambhir won the toss and decided to field first. Rajasthan got off to a bad start as their last match hero Ajinkya Rahane was run-out for a duck. Dravid and Shreevats Goswami added 44 runs for the second wicket before Dravid was the second one to be run-out. Towards the end, Ashok Menaria (40) and Brad Hodge (44) made sure that they put up a challenging total. Rajasthan scored 164 runs at the end of 20 overs!
Kolkata got off to a pathetic start as Kallis, Gambhir and McCullum perished in three balls. Kallis (5) was deceived by a slower one by Amit Singh who then scalped skipper Gambhir for a first ball duck. In the next over bowled by Ankeet Chavan, Brendon McCullum (2) was trapped before the wicket to a poor shot selection.
Manoj Tiwary (59) was the only batsman who picked up boundaries and kept Kolkata in the hunt. But with a tough task ahead, neither he nor a late cameo played by Lee (25 from 11) could save Kolkata. Yusuf Pathan once again failed to play a big knock (15) as he earlier leaked 28 runs from just 2 overs.
It was an all-round performance by Rajasthan as Kevon Cooper once again was the pick of the bowlers for his side and he scalped three wickets, all of them bowled. Ankeet Chavan, Sidharth Trivedi and Amit Singh picked up two wickets each. Rajasthan have now won two out of two whereas Gambhir led Kolkata Knight Riders have lost both of their matches which is matter of serious concern for the team and the franchise owners.
Brad Hodge who scored 44 runs from just 29 balls was adjudged the Man of the Match. Rajasthan now has Ajinkya Rahane with the orange cap (98 runs in 2 matches) and Kevon Cooper owns the Purple Cap with 7 wickets in just 2 matches!
First Published: Sunday, April 8, 2012, 20:32
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