IPL 2 Game 50: Delhi Get Past Rusty Looking Royals

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Sreelata YellamrazuMay 19 2009

For simply being the most inconsistent team this IPL 2 season, the Rajasthan Royals deserve an award. Yet again they showed their bane in this season, losing to the Delhi Daredevils by fourteen runs, once again showing why they are a team whose fortunes depend on the day.

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The venue was Bloemfontein though as far as the Delhi Daredevils were concerned, it was not an issue. It has become a pattern of sorts for captain Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir not to come to the party while AB de Villiers and Tillekeratne Dilshan and to an extent, Dinesh Karthik, have been leading the runs division for the team that missed out on making the semi finals of the IPL in India.

On this occasion, it was AB who took centre stage and the seventy-nine runs he scored off fifty balls following the exit of two big guns were the testimony of yet another batsman who believed in playing the ball on merit rather than showcasing a mindless bluster of shots. Keeping him company were the usual suspects, Dilshan making thirty-three.

150 would have been a slightly vulnerable score. But on a day when the Rajasthan Royals failed to fire, even 150 appeared a distant dream. Ashish Nehra (three overs for eight runs and one wicket) and Dirk Nannes struck early and the defending champions soon found themselves in serious trouble at three down for twenty-four in only the seventh over.

Unlikely salvage efforts came from Johan Botha who made thirty-seven and Ravindra Jadeja with twenty-four runs to his name and a late blitz by Munaf Patel for twenty-four. But really speaking, the Royals had committed themselves to hara kiri and lost this match much before the final ball of the match was bowled. As Amit Mishra got into the busy end to finish the matters off, there would be no heroes in the Rajasthan Royals dressing room.

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