RR’s Faulkner and Smith outdo RCB in match 35

It was undoubtedly one of the best matches for Pepsi IPL 7 so far as RR’s Faulkner and Smith turned around the match against RCB with some scintillating batting to steal a win after Yuvraj’s blast from the past went in vain. James Faulkner by outdoing Yuvraj’s efforts claimed the man of the match award. In Bengaluru it was a day when Yuvi who has been scratchy in form decided to dominate the RR bowlers and played an unbelievable knock with none other than de Villers as partner. AB de Villiers and Yuvraj Singh came together to change the very complexion of the RCB innings. The duo reputed for their massive strikes hit a total of 12 sixes, five by de Villiers and seven by Yuvraj Singh to completely flatten the confidence of the RR bowlers. It happened in the space of only 65 balls that 132 runs flowed from their bats to boost the RCB score 191. Yuvraj Singh made 83 before being trapped leg before wicket by Kane Richardson in the 19th over to the immense relief of RR. AB de Villiers scored 58 before being dismissed by James Faulkner in the final over of the RCB innings. Virat Kohli made 4 upon opening with Chris Gayle when RCB won the toss. Kane Richardson dismissed Kohli in the third over. While Gayle on 19 got stumped off the bowling of Pravin Tambe in the eighth over, Vijay Zol on 16 got out to a beauty of Rahul Tewatia in the ninth. Thanks to the Yuvi-AB show RCB on home turf ended up scoring a mammoth 190 for five in their quota of 20 overs. In one of the best T20 finishes ever seen Steve Smith and James Faulkner pulled of an unbelievable win for RR that stunned the home crowd in Bengaluru. The home crowd had really lapped up the scintillating batting of Yuvi and AB. But little did they know that the RR batsmen Faulkner and Smith would prove that they can do it much better than the home team RCB at Bengaluru. The pair came together at a point when the target was still 85 runs away and they had only 39 balls to get it in. The blitz from them enabled RR to reach the 191 run target by a five-wicket margin with seven balls to spare. Earlier Ajinkya Rahane and Karun Nair gave RR a good start by adding 54 runs for the first wicket. Rahane on 24 was a victim of Yuzvendra...

Bowlers salvage victory for SRH over RR in match 30

A 32-run win for SRH was claimed by an incredibly inspired bowling performance by Bhuvneshwar Kumar over RR at the Motera. Man of the match Kumar scalped 4 wickets in his 4 overs giving away only 14 runs for SRH to register a 32-run away win against RR in Ahmedabad. RR had been set a very modest total of 134 to achieve but the SRH bowlers turned the match on its head as they bowled out their opponents RR for a paltry 102 to win the match. RR upon winning the toss chose to field first. SRH opened their innings with skipper Shikhar Dhawan and Aaron Finch. Dhawan scoring 33 with seven fours got SRH to a flying start but could not maintain the tempo as he was bowled out by Watson. Lokesh Rahul then joined Finch in the middle to bring up the 50 for SRH. Soon Finch was dismissed on 9 off the bowling of Rajat Bhatia in the seventh over and Rahul on 18 by Bhatia leaving SRH on 67 for three after nine overs. David Warner could not flourish as he was stumped on a Tambe delivery on 6 while Bhatia had Naman Ojha’s stumps uprooted on 17. Moses Henriques and Irfan Pathan then came together to take SRH past the 100-run mark in the 15th over. Watson in the 17th over claimed Henriques on 9 and Karn Sharma without scoring off consecutive deliveries to bag a hat-trick as he had dismissed Dhawan off the last ball of his previous over. This marked the second hat-trick at Ahmedabad in Pepsi IPL 7. Then two consecutive run outs were achieved by Sanju Samson who removed Dale Steyn for 9 and Amit Mishra for a duck. Pathan made an unbeaten 21 to help SRH score 134 for nine by the end of their stipulated 20 overs. RR’s reply began disastrously as they lost Ajinkya Rahane for 0 in the first over itself off the bowling of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Karun Nair and Samson added 27 for the second wicket. Steyn struck in the fourth over to get rid of Nair on 12. Karn Sharma scalped Samson on 16. The RR story turned for the worse when Captain Watson on 11 was caught behind in the seventh over off Henriques leaving SRH shaking and lost at 41 for four. Binny and Steve Smith added 37 runs in an attempt to steady the innings. Binny left for 12 in the 14th over and Steyn removed Smith on 22 as the...

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...

RR wins twister over KKR amid exciting Super Over

The ultimate Pepsi IPL 7 match 19 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on April 29, 2014 was tied between RR and KKR providing extreme excitement and some fabulous cricket. Both teams had come into their fifth match having won two and lost two. The ensuing tie between RR and KKR indicated that both the teams were at par. So the tense scenario of the Super Over was incident, the first instance in Pepsi IPL 7, yet the scores were tied on 11 runs each for KKR and RR. Amid extremely exhilarating circumstances RR claimed their two points as they were declared winners and edged past KKR as they had hit more number of boundaries during the regulation match. Shane Watson the RR skipper upon winning the toss chose to bat in Abu Dhabi and Ajinkya Rahane and Nair opened the RR innings. Vinay Kumar of KKR bowled Nair on 1 in the third over to let the young sensation Sanju Samson join Rahane in the middle. RR cruised past the 50-run mark in the eighth over with these two meddling the ball well enough. Shakib Al Hasan scalped Samson on 20 making it 54 for 2 for RR. RR Captain Shane Watson and Rahane then build a valuable third-wicket partnership yielding 64 runs. Watson perished on 33 as he was unfortunately run-out. Rahane continued his good streak until he was caught at long-on going for a big hit off Vinay Kumar after having played a brilliant knock of 72 in the 20th over of the RR innings. Meanwhile Stuart Binny was dismissed for a duck, Steve Smith scored an unbeaten 18 and birthday boy James Faulkner remained unbeaten on 2. RR set up a competitive 152 for five for KKR to chase down and win. The KKR bowlers Vinay Kumar took two wickets with Morne Morkel and Shakib Al Hasan scalping one each. KKR responded with skipper Gautam Gambhir and Manvinder Bisla taking strike against the onslaught of the RR bowlers. After some struggle Gambhir finally started to strike the ball having set his eye. However the KKR batting exhibited much to be desired in their top order as Bisla who could somehow manage only 3 in his maiden outing of the season was dismissed after having been frustrated by Kane Richardson. Next to leave was the experienced South African all rounder Jacques Kallis on 13 from 19 balls. Then Pandey followed suit on 19 whose wicket was claimed by RR spinner Tambe. In the meanwhile...

RR punctures RCB challenge at Abu Dhabi

RR won against RCB by six wickets on 26th April 2014, Saturday in match 14 of Pepsi IPL 7 played in Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Shane Watson the RR skipper chose to field first against RCB who have one of the best batting line-up in the on going tournament upon winning the toss on a green Abu Dhabi track. The decision saw Stuart Binny claiming the wicket of Yogesh Takawale on a duck in the fourth ball of the first over of the RCB innings. As if it was not enough, Parthiv Patel was run-out off the fifth delivery of the Binny over leaving RCB on 1 for 2 in the first over. The RR bowlers got just the initiative that they had been looking forward to and made opponent RCB’s situation a worst nightmare that they would want to forget very quickly. Kane Richardson dismissed Yuvraj Singh off the first ball of the third over of the RCB innings. Richardson also had AB de Villiers on a duck off the next ball he bowled. RCB were 5 for the loss of 4 wickets totally clueless as to what had struck them. While the collapse went on at one end RCB Captain Virat Kohli was simply a mute spectator. Virat was joined by Sachin Rana and they began to work out their job of building up a score when Shane Watson sent Rana batting on 3 back to the dugout. The RCB scorecard read a pathetic 17 for 5. When the score was at 28, Albie Morkel left having made a meager contribution of 7 as he tried to go for a big hit that Steve Smith did not miss of a Pravin Tambe delivery. Again Tambe struck to finish off the 18 run partnership between Kohli and Mitchell Starc by claimimg the prize wicket of Kohli on 21. Starc too left on 18 leaving RCB on 62 for eight. Ravi Rampaul made 13 and fell to Tambe. Ashok Dinda’s dismissal on a 0 cleaned up the slate for RCB as they fretted, faltered and finally abated under the pressure exerted by the RR bowlers and especially the 42 year-old leg spinner Tambe who claimed 4 precious wickets. The score board exhibited an unbelievable and miserable 70 for RCB after 15 overs. Tambe returned the figures of 4-0-20-4 while Richardson had 4-0-18-2 to show for their immense efforts along with the unstinted support by the other five RR bowlers. RR’s chase was begun by Ajinkya Rahane who...