IPL 2 Game 53: Crash It is For the Rajasthan Royals, Courtesy KKR

Sreelata YellamrazuMay 21 2009

The nails in the coffin for the defending champions were driven in by a team who has been the butt of jokes themselves. The Kolkata Knight Riders ruined Rajasthan Royals’ final party by sending them crashing out of the IPL 2 in South Africa.

langevelt

The Rajasthan Royals’ suspect batting was brought to the fore and by a man who has not been allowed to play a single match this season. Charl Langevelt, highly touted by former South African captain and now television commentator Kepler Wessels, did not play a single match for the Kolkata Knight Riders. But the KKR team would have learnt the folly of their ways after watching him decimate the Royals’ batting line up.

Kingsmead, Durban exposed the Rajasthan Royals’ problems this season of the IPL. Batting has swung from the most mediocre to the most extraordinary. Yet again it was a case of the former. Langevelt though played his part in a crucial game for the Royals when they surprisingly left out Graeme Smith. When the top score of the innings is twenty-two by the opener Naman Ojha, one can imagine the carnage that followed. Langevelt picked up the top three of four wickets while Swapnil Asnodkar was tragically run out.

laxmi ratan shukla

With no momentum whatsoever, the Royals could not put up more than 100 runs on board and it was expected after the KKR performance the previous match with Brendon McCullum in extraordinary mood, that this would be a piece of cake. When the top five batsmen are dismissed for single digit figures and half the side back in the pavilion for thirty-seven, it is usually curtains for the batting team.

It was virtually the single handed efforts in a weird scorecard where the scores prior to Laxmi Ratan Shukla read 9,0,6,6,9 that he put up forty-eight runs from his own kitty to fashion the win that appeared to have virtually disappeared, thanks to Munaf Patel and Johan Botha.

IPL 2 Game 54: RCB Spell Another Defeat for Daredevils

Finally a Hot Sign on the IPL 2 Points Tally Table

Ness Wadia: First Break Up with Preity, Now Broken Himself

IPL 2 Game 51: KKR Arrive at Wrong Chennai Party

McCullum Not Quitting, Racism Didn't Happen, No Match Fixing and No Dada?

IPL 2 Game 50: Delhi Get Past Rusty Looking Royals

Yuvraj Feelings the Negative Side Effects of Being Captain

Zoozoos or IPL 2: Which is More Attractive?

Reluctant Captain: Gayle in Trouble over Remarks on Status of Tests, Captaincy

Tait Upset over Australian Selection-IPL drama

Shoaib's Selection in T20 Draws Flak

ICC World Twenty20: Fatigue Concerns for Indian Team