PUNJAB GETS RAJASTHANI ‘TADKA’

Rajasthan washes away punjab with a 78 runs win. Punjab won the toss and elected to bowl first. Bowlers played their part in  guessing to which part of the crowd would the next one be smashed!!. Naman Ojha and Graeme Smith gave a cracking start for Royals. They have put up a highest first wicket partnership of the season with 135 runs. Smith who was struggling  with his form right from the first match of the tournament had a great day and scored 77 in just 44 balls with 4×12 6×1. Naman inspired by the game of Smith started showing his aggression. He scored a smashing 68 in 50 balls which had 4×5 and 6×5. They showed no mercy to any bowler. Star bowler of Punjab Yusuf Abdulla was no exception. He had the highest economy rate of 14.33 in just 3 overs (43 runs). Surprisingly Sreesanth was back with the team after his injury. He seem to be good at the beginning with just 11 runs in 2 overs. Every over in their innings had atleast one 4 or a 6 except the 1st over of sreesanth which produced only 4 runs. To the end even he proved to be expensive with 44 runs in 4 overs. The partnership of the opening pair was broken in the 15th over by Powar. Took the wicket of Smith, he was caught by Chawla. By that time Smith managed to do the damage of what he can. Next was the turn of Yusuf Pathan. Crowd was awaiting the clash of Pathan’s but that didn’t happened. Yusuf departed early with just 12 runs. Ojha was back into the hut in the same over (16th) throwed his wicket to Piyush Chawla. By that point the score was 164. Punjab’s relief didn’t last longer. Ravindra Jadega continued the momentum, and he contributed 33 runs from his bat in just 12 balls with 4×5 6×1. He was caught by Jayawardane in an attempt for a shot in Pathan’s bowling in the 20th over. Rajasthan had set up a strong total of 211, surprisingly without the contribution of the Team’s ‘Lethal Weapon’ Yusuf Pathan, nevertheless it had a 6 and a 4 from his bat too. Strike rate of all of the 6 batsmen who played was above 100*. The only successful bowler was Piyush Chawla with 2 wickets for 30 runs in 4 overs.

After the Rajasthani Cyclone crowd was awaiting Punjabi Thunders. Though the total seemed to highly impossible with 10.5 RPO anything can happen in 20-20 and a Team with Yuvi. But this didn’t happen. Amit singh the Debutant bowler of Rajasthan striked right from the first ball. He took 3 wickets of sohal, Karan Goel and Yuvraj Singh with just 9 runs in 4 overs. Punjab lost their first wicket for the first ball of their innings. Karan Goel was the next vicitm of Amit Singh in the same over. Yuvraj was one of the four batsmen with a double digit score of the 10 batsmen who played. He score 48 runs in 37 balls with 4×3 6×3. At any movement the Team didn’t seemed to be in the trial of winning the match. They could put up a score of 133 for 8 in 20 overs.