Rajhastan Royals extended their daunting run of successive victories on home soil to claim an opening seven wickets victory over Mumbai Indians.The Royals clinched their ninth successive victory at the Sawi Mansingh Stadium and took their impressive run to 25 wins out of the last 34 at their base by overhauling Mumbai’s total of 142 for seven with three balls remaining.
“It was a very professional performance,” enthused Royals’ captain Rahul Dravid. “I’m really pleased to start the tournament like this – it gives us a lot of confidence for the games ahead.”
Rahul dravid Bangalore Royal Challengers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Mumbai’s total was built around an outstanding 52-run stand off only 45 balls between Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard, which guided them to a competitive total following a sluggish start after being put into bat on a seamer-friendly wicket.
The expectant crowd at the stadium had come to watch Mumbai’s Sachin Tendulkar pit his wits against Rahul Dravid for perhaps the last time, but were denied a big innings from the Little Master by the Royals excellent bowling display.
Tendulkar was aggressive from the start, but was dismissed for 15 off 17 balls by Stuart Binny, the former Mumbai Indians all-rounder, when he edged behind pushing forward.
While Binny got the key wicket, it was the performance of seamer Vikramjeet Malik, a new signing for the Royals, that swung the match in their favour after he claimed three for 24 in his four overs, including delivering 15 dot balls.
Having slipped to 38 for three, it need Sharma and Pollard to combine and help add 89 in the final 10 overs that at least gave them a chance of ending Rajhastan’s incredible home record.
Sharma edged Shane Watson behind with four overs remaining after hitting 44 off 37 balls and Pollard was dismissed in the final over for 42 off 36 balls.
Dravid’s success in rotating his attack to good effect did not transfer to his batting and he fell in the second over, cutting Nathan Coulter-Nile to backward point, but a 75-run second wicket partnership between Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Sampson calmed the nerves.
Rahane played on to seamer Rishi Dhawan but Sampson, at 19, became the youngest player to score half-centuries in both the Indian Premier League and Champions League by bringing up the landmark 41 balls.
Attempting to accelerate during the final overs, he picked out Dwayne Smith in the deep off Pollard, but Binny came out and smashed 27 off 14 balls, including a six to win the game off Coulter-Nile, to maintain the Royals incredible home record.
James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
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