It's all over! starts and finishes off with Rahane in action again, Murali gives room and tries to loft it over covers but it comes off the bottom of the bat and loops high and our man of the evening Rahane at cover runs back and takes a regulation catch
RR vs RCB, 18th match at Bengaluru, IPL, Apr 15 2012 - Ball by Ball Commentary
That's it from us. This is Abhishek N signing off. Good bye and take care...
It has been a ripper of a first match and quite a contrasting second one, though highly entertaining. Hope you enjoyed both the matches.
Well said, mate
One final comment before we sign off
Harvinder Singh:This time around IPL has definitely exposed the obvious T20 talent (or in some cases dearth of it) till now. With players like A Rahane, Owais Shah, Rohit Sharma, Gayle, Steyn and lots more being at one extreme end of it... and with Dhoni, Ganguly, Y Pathan, Vinay kumar and some others at the other extreme... Well to justify IPL lets hope the
latter end of the spectrum is comprised more of foreign players (or
lesser paid!!!) by the end of this season!
Presentation time:
Dravid: "It is always great to play here in front of family and friends. I would like to thank the crowd for making it such a good experience and I would like to thank my team for their performance. Shah and Rahane batted splendidly. Some of their shots were incredible and they played those shots against a side that has five international bowlers. "
Vettori: "We were pretty satisfied with how we started but then Rahane and Shah really took the game away from us. We know we can come back from this. We need to get back to winning ways."
Ajinkya Rahane is the Man of the Match for his unbeaten 103 off just 60 balls
Ajinkya Rahane: "That was a special knock from me and i would like to congratulate my team mates for their performance as well. I am playing along side my role model, Dravid, so I get to learn a lot of things from him. This is quite a long tournament, so I just need to keep my form going. "
Rajasthan Royals move to the top of the table with that win but it's still early days. The net run-rate also has taken a huge boost for the Royals.
The match was done and dusted in the first 10 overs. Royals bowlers bowled a tight line and length to keep the Gayle force in check. They chipped away with wickets at regular intervals and never let them off the hook.
on the legs, whipped to deep backward square leg for a single
short of a length, Aravind swings across the line and misses, straight to the keeper
length outside off, Aravind goes down on one knee and hammers it over the bowler's head with a flat bat, one bounce over the ropes
Aravind pulls it over to mid-on wherein Shah is late to react as he goes for the catch but falls short of him and the ball bounces in front of him and rolls on to the fence
similar line and length, angling in slightly, Murali tries to heave it over deep midwicket but misses it again, typical Murali trying to slog
change of pace deceives Murali as he looks to swipe it across the line and misses by a good margin
wide outside off, that has been drilled to wide long-on and go through for an easy single
pulls it over midwicket and scamper for two but a wild shy at the stumps from the keeper allows the batsmen to scramble for an extra run
similar line, Murali connects it this time as he swivels it over midwicket for a two
that's a typical Murali shot! slower one, he looks to swing across and misses it
on the full this time, Aravind pushes it to short midwicket as Hogg runs across and fields it
looks to sweep it away but fails to make contact as it spins sharply away from Aravind
tossed up outside off, Murali looks to drive but squeezes it to backward point
floating on the leg stump, Murali comes on the front foot and shows the full face of the bat to Hogg
Caught at midwicket! floating length, Zaheer tries to go over midwicket with a fierce pull but hits it out straight to Rahane who takes an easy catch
wrong 'un, Zaheer does not pick it at all, goes to the keeper
length ball angling away, Aravind tries to slap it past cover but it takes a thick outside edge and races away to the third man boundary
Bowled! that's the sixth time the timber has been disturbed in this innings, slightly short, skips down the track and looks to heave it over midwicket but the ball nips back off the seam and knocks the top of his middle stump
slower one, Vinay steers it to fielder at point for no run
Over 20 • RCB 136/10