Rahul Dravid, Ajinkya Rahane guide Rajasthan Royals to crushing win over Delhi Daredevils

Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane slammed half-centuries to power Rajasthan Royals to a crushing nine-wicket win over the Delhi Daredevils in the 52nd match of IPL 2013 tournament on Tuesday. With this win, Rajasthan moved to the second spot in IPL points table.

Rahul Dravid cracked seven boundaries to score 53 © IANS

By Devarchit Varma

Jaipur: May 7, 2013

Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane slammed half-centuries to power Rajasthan Royals to a crushing nine-wicket win over the Delhi Daredevils in the 52nd match of IPL 2013 tournament on Tuesday. With this win, Rajasthan moved to the second spot in IPL points table.

Chasing a target of 155, Rajasthan cruised to a comprehensive win with more than two overs to spare.

Dravid (53) amd Rahane (63 not out) added 108 runs for the first wicket, while Shane Watson got a quick 14-ball 28 not out towards the end to power Royals to a big win.

In their chase of 155, Rajasthan openers Dravid and Rahane started off on a cautious note initially and then opened up to score runs on both sides of the wicket. Dravid flicked Siddharth Kaul in the air towards the deep midwicket area in the third over for a boundary, and got the same result when he got a leading edge flying over the fielders on the on-side.

Dravid got into the groove with a classic stroke off Morne Morkel once again towards the deep midwicket region on the last ball of the fifth over, and slapped a slow delivery by Ajit Agarkar straight over umpire Aleem Dar’s head after deflecting from bowler’s hand, in the next as Rajasthan raced to 49/0 after six overs.

Agarkar’s first over got 13 runs for the home side.

Rahane, on the other hand, got a lifeline in the fifth over off Morkel when Pawan Negi dropped a difficult chance, and was lucky on one more instance off Morkel when he got an inside edge missing the stumps and racing away to the boundary, on the first ball of the eighth over.

Dravid and Rahane gave no opportunity to the Delhi bowlers, and easily nudged the ball along the park to keep adding runs for the Royals and picked boundaries every now and then.

Delhi captain Mahela Jayawardene introduced Ben Rohrer in the 12th over with hope to cut down the scoring rate, but Dravid lifted him over the cover region for a boundary and Rahane flicked the last ball for a boundary towards fine-leg area to collect 12 from the over.

The Royals crossed the 100-run mark in the 13th over of the game off Morkel, with skipper Dravid also completing his well-made half-century. The lanky South African didn’t trouble the Rajasthan openers much, with the odd ball rising high and beating the edge. Dravid, on one such instance, was beaten by the pace and bounce as the ball hit the shoulder of the bat and landed safely, with Dravid taking a single to reach his fifty.

It was in the 14th over when the Daredevils made the first breakthrough, with Dravid falling to Kaul after a fluent 53 off 48 balls, caught by Agarkar at long-on. The Rajasthan captain cracked seven boundaries during his stay at the crease.

Rahane completed his half-century with a single off Umesh Yadav in the 15th over, and Shane Watson, who walked in after Dravid’s fall, clobbered 12 runs from the remaining five balls to mark a confident start.
 
Watson, who is in a rich form, clobbered three boundaries and a six to race to 28 not out from 14 balls. 

Rahane remained unbeaten on 63 from 45 balls, studded with five boundaries and a six.

Read first innings report here.

Brief scores:

Delhi Daredevils 154 for 4 in 20 overs (Ben Rohrer 64*, Mahela Jayawardene 34; Stuart Binny 1 for 3, Shane Watson 1 for 21) lost to Rajasthan Royals 155 for 1 in 17.5 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 63*, Rahul Dravid 53; Siddharth Kaul 1 for 23) by 9 wickets.

Man of the Match: Ajinkya Rahane

Full Scorecard

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