Serene Jhunjhunwala leads the way

Abhishek Jhunjhunwala led with a serene 45 to ensure Rajasthan capitalised on a solid start to end up with a very competitive 168, a total which they defended with a disciplined show from their spinners.

On a slow turner, he negated the threat of Murali Karthik by collecting a few boundaries with late cuts to throw the spinner off rhythm. Karthik has bowled superbly so far in IPL and he was going to be Kolkata's main bowler but Jhunjhunwala tackled him well. He stayed on the back foot, created his own length and late cut couple of boundaries. As a result, Karthik's length seemed to suffer and in trying to cramp the batsman, Karthik's line too went awry.

Later, Jhunjhunwala again rose up to the occasion when Yousuf fell to a short ball. Things could have gone either way at that point but Jhunjhunwala calmly shephered the lower order to collect valuable runs. Jhunjhunwala on drove and nudged into gaps, to push Rajasthan ahead. He realised the ball was stopping a touch and it would slow down further in the evening. As a result, he knew a target around 170 would prove to be a stiff one and ensured the runs kept tickling in.

When he fell in the first ball of the 18th over, it looked like Rajasthan might lose their way but Adam Voges freed his arms to loot 17 runs in the final over, bowled by Ishant , to charge Rajasthan to a respectable total, which proved enough in the end. Jhunjhunwala's calm effort had paid off.