Challengers thrash Royals in their opener

KP’s boys thrashed Royals in their opening match. The defending champions were completely shattered by Challengers demolishing performance. Challengers won the toss and chose to bat first and scored a decent total of 133 for the loss of 7 wickets. Dravid scored 66 runs and was the top scorer and helped the challengers to reach a respectable score. No other batsmen except for Pietersen managed a decent score.

Royals started their innings and were completely out shattered with the good bowling performance from the Challengers. They were all out for just 58 runs. No batsmen looked like getting the scores. Anil Kumble got his first 5 wicket haul which was the highlight of the match. Dravid was declared the Man of the Match for his excellent performance with the bat.

Details:

Bangalore Royal Challengers:

Jesse Ryder and Robin Uttappa started the innings for Challengers, but failed to perform. Ryder was caught behind in the bowling of Mascarenhas in the first over itself, later he got rid of dangerous batsmen Ross Taylor. This happened in two consecutive deliveries and Mascarenhas was all set for his hatrick ball which was firmly held by captain Kevin Pietersen. He joined Uttappa to settle the innings but Uttappa fell to Mascarenhas in his third over giving a simple catch to the keeper. The score was just 17 for the loss of 3 important wickets. Rahul Dravid then joined the crease with Kevin, the former captain held the innings well along with his captain. KP was the real dominant scorer and started attacking the Royals. He played the most elegant shots and gave a clinch of recovery to the challengers but gave away his wicket cheaply at a crucial stage by giving a simple catch to NK Patel at midwicket in the bowling of Henderson. Virat kohli joined the crease with the wall to stable the things up but was bowled to superb bowling from Warne. His spell was just magical; Kohli was completely beaten to a flighted delivery and got bowled to Warne. Mean while Dravid played very well with his fluent strokes and clicked the score board. His class was shown with the shots he played and completed his fifty. On the other hand no one just supported Dravid; they just gave away wickets easily. Akhil, Praveen gave some fight along with the Wall but failed to convert into big scores. Dravid’s hit for a six of Munaf over deep midwicket in the last over was the highlight of the innings. He got out in the same over of Munaf for 66 of just 48 deliveries. Challengers just managed to score 133 which was a decent tally on board. It just depends on how they bowl to the Royals in the later half.

Rajasthan Royals:

Royals started their innings with Graeme Smith and Swapnil Asnodkar. As the target was gettable they were quite confident in reaching it. Praveen started the spell and was superb with his line and length. He deceived Asnodkar with a wider delivery and gave a simple catch to Kohli at point. Praveen just troubled each batsmen with his magic deliveries especially the out swingers, Smith tried to cut the ball which was going away and gave a simple dolly to Dravid at first slip. The score was 7 and Royals were in deep trouble. Neeraj patel joined the crease and was troubled by Steyn and Ryder who were bowling great. Patel was caught at mid on by Kumble in the bowling of Ryder.Henderson and Yusuf Pathan had lot of pressure backing them to overcome the trouble their team faced but failed to deliver. Henderson was bowled by Ryder for just 11. Mascarenhas joined Yusuf, due to lack of communication he was run out for the first ball he faced. Kohli grabbed the ball at point and gave a good shot at Uttappa who just blowed the bails away. Jadeja was a hope next along with Yusuf but it was now the Legendary Kumble who broke the shackles against Royals. He demolished the Royals with his leg spin. Jadeja, Yusuf and Warne were the victims of Kumble. As the run rate was clinching high these batsmen tried to score quick runs and gave away their wickets. It was almost done by the Challengers as Kumble grabbed the final two wickets and was his five wicket haul and gave Challengers a comprehensive victory over Royals.