DD takes a beating at Kotla from RR

In match 23 of Pepsi IPL 7 it was Karun Nair of RR who though an elevated performance claimed victory for his team RR through his innings of an unbeaten 73 from just 50 balls against DD. Karun Nair who plays for Karnataka aided RR to beat DD by seven wickets at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi. It was the sterling innings from Nair in which 44 runs came of 4s and 6s, formed the base of the RR chase of the target of 152 set up by DD. Nair the 22 year old batsman of RR not only batted through the innings but even got the winning runs for his team with nine balls to spare earning the man of the match award.

RR skipper Shane Watson asked DD to bat after winning the toss. Initially DD openers Quinton de Kock and Murali Vijay played fine shots and were in total command against the RR bowlers. Then Vijay packed up on 13 in the fifth over with the DD score at 33 to bring in the much expected arrival of DD skipper Kevin Pietersen. Though Pietersen on three was granted a life from a messed up run out chance in the seventh over he could not find his form and left after having made only a meager 14 caught by Steve Smith off the bowling of Pravin Tambe. Tambe also went on to remove the fluent hitter de Kock falling 7 short from his half-century in the very same over.

Dinesh Karthik and JP Duminy came together when DD were on 71 for three. The partnership was broken by Faulkner who got Karthik on 12 in the 16th over. Duminy went on to make a quick fire 39 till being dismissed by Kane Richardson in the final over. Kedar Jadhav registered a nicely struck unbeaten 28 to his name in only 14 balls to take the DD total to 152 for the loss of five wickets in their allocated 20 overs. Tambe again turned in a consistent performance exhibited through his figures of 4-0-25-2. Faulkner also scalped two in his four overs giving away 26 runs in the process.

RR began their chase with Ajinkya Rahane who could manage only 12 and Karun Nair. Sanju Samson made a brisk and effective 34 before Karthik stumped him off the bowling of Shahbaz Nadeem. Nair’s next partner was Rajat Bhatia who made 17 in his short stint before getting out in the 15th over. Skipper Watson made an unbeaten 16 and played along with Nair to see the team through to the end.