Thursday 5 May 2011

Chennai flawless..Rajasthan clueless

10 boundaries from a batsmen who has long been terminated from playing the shortest version of the game happened to be a savor to his team when his knock saved a lot of face for his team which would otherwise been making rounds for all the bad reasons. Rahul Dravid scored an individual score of 67 runs at a strike rate of 129.41 from 51 balls which saw the total boost to 147 which would have otherwise been just 80. The Rajasthan innings saw just three batsmen scoring double figure scores. All these were scored by international batsmen with experience.

The names include Shane Watson, Rahul Dravid and Ross Taylor who are all big names in international cricket. Johan Botha could have just added a bit to the score which actually didn't happen. Only Shane Warne can answer why he himself didn't take on to the crease to blow some bowlers with his decade long experience in international cricket which has seen him play some handy innings for Australia when the situation demanded it from him. It is fascinating to see none of the batsmen from the Rajasthan Royals' side being able to clear the ropes even once. No sixes!

However, Rahul Dravid from Rajasthan Royals' side can walk with his head held high with him being the highest boundary hitter in the contest with him being able to cross the ropes on 10 occasions. Rahul Dravid also falls into the category with the highest number of boundaries and sixes put together with Mike Hussey's tally of 8 fours and one six falling short of it by 1 hit. One has to appreciate the accuracy with which the bowlers of both teams bowled with there being just 5 extra deliveries. Four of them were bowled by Rajasthan Royals and one from Chennai Superkings.

On the other hand, the Chennai innings had absolutely no trouble at all in chasing down the total of 148 with batsmen like Mike Hussey, Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Of course, Morkel, Murali Vijay and Badrinath also form a handy set. But, if at all anyone can comment about the Chenai Superkings' innings, they might have to just dispute with the scorecard which showed them lose just two wickets en route to their successful run chase. The run chase would have been successful even had the Rajasthan Royals scored a total of over 180. Eventually, a fourth straight win would have excited Dhoni needless to be said.

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