Rajasthan continues winning

Rajasthan Royals continued their winning streak securing a comprehensive win against the visiting Chennai Super Kings at Motera by 17 runs.

Two cricket truisms were proved by this victory: 1.The team that performs as a unit wins. 2. Fielding wins matches. In the process, the Rajasthan citadel in Ahmedabad remained safe against yet another visiting team.

The Chennai team was lacklustre in their performance and again failed to win a close contest.

Matthew Hayden came in and got started, but a Yusuf Pathan special sent the CSK opener back to the dug out pretty early. Hayden couldn’t connect with a low full toss and Pathan stretched his arm out to his right and plucked one of the best catches of IPL 2010. Pathan seems to be revelling in role of a frontline strike bowler.

Murali Vijay, though, didn’t let the loss of his opening partner affect him. In the very next over, Vijay hit Sumit Narwal out of the attack blasting 24 runs, with the scoreboard reading: 6, 0, 4, 4, 6, 4.

But Pathan was on fire today in the field and the Royals’ hero scored a direct hit to rid of Vijay (42). He was then involved in another run out, that of CSK skipper MS Dhoni. With Dhoni went any chance of the visitors winning the match. Dhoni was looking to build momentum to guide his team but committed hara-kiri by running for a non-existent single. Compounding the problem was S Badrinath who rammed into his skipper and a batless-Dhoni couldn’t cross the line before the ball.

Albie Morkel provided brief entertainment and hope to CSK supporters hitting Warne for three consecutive sixes, but he too fell before seeing the side through.

Earlier, Naman Ojha was the star of the Royals’ innings scoring 80 off 49 balls. He was the rock of the Rajasthan team, scoring freely even as the wickets kept tumbling around him. Michael Lumb was his usual aggressive self getting the team off to a flier and the score read 47 in the fourth over. But Morkel, who had been battered by the Englishman, got his revenge taking Lumb’s wicket in the fourth over.

Yusuf Pathan couldn’t get going today with the bat and left after being outfoxed by off-spinner Shadab Jakati. Pathan’s wicket slowed things down and CSK managed to concede only 81 runs from the last ten overs.

The Royals’ innings ended with a manic last over that saw them lose three wickets with only six runs being added

The fourth straight win for the Royals sees them garner two more points to climb to eight points. CSK, on the other hand, sink to the second-last position on the points table.