Rajasthan Royals beat Deccan Charges by 8 wickets

Botha stars as Royals thump Chargers by eight wickets

jinx on their home ground continued as Rajasthan Royalsdefeated them by eight wickets to get their campaign in the fourth season of the Indian Premier League off to a winning start. The Chargers are yet to win a match they have played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal.

Amit Paunikar got Rajasthan Royals's run chase of 138 off to a flier as he hit the first two deliveries of the innings bowled by Pragyan Ojha to the boundary. Paunikar then hit the best pace bowler in the world, Dale Steyn, for a couple more boundaries in the second over as the Royals looked to make short work of the comparatively small target as they raced away to 19 for no loss.

But, the introduction of Ishant Sharma in the attack checked the run rate as he seemed to be on song after a long while and had both Paunikar and Dravid in trouble; the former especially was all at sea against the lanky pacer and was beaten for pace in four consecutive deliveries in the fifth over of the Royals' innings. Steyn then gave Chargers the much-needed breakthrough when he had Paunikar brilliantly caught behind by skipper Kumar Sangakkara, who dived to his right to take a blinder as the Royals lost their first wicket with the score on 31 in the sixth over.

Dravid and Johan Botha, who was surprisingly promoted to No. 3, then added 52 runs for the second wicket at more than a run-a-ball. But, it was Botha who was the more aggressive of the pair with Dravid being content rotating the strike, which even that at times he found it difficult to do. Dravid (28 in 35 balls) was finally done in by a Steyn (2-18) slower delivery as the South African pacer got the better of his former RCB colleague with the Royals 83 for 2 in the 13th over.

Botha and Ross Taylor then took the Royals home with an unbroken partnership of 58 runs in 36 balls despite their team needing 30 runs to win in the last three overs of the match. Botha, who hit an unbeaten 47-ball 67 to justify his promotion and finished the match off in style as he hit Ojha to the boundary, and Taylor played his part too and remained unbeaten on 21. Ishant's last over, 18th of the innings, went for 15 runs, and then Botha took 18 runs off the first five balls of the 19th over bowled by Pragyan Ojha, who had an off day, and had figures of 3.5-0-44-0.

Earlier, Shikhar Dhawan and Ishank Jaggi got Deccan Chargers off to a rollicking start with a first-wicket partnership of 40 runs inside the first five overs, but good bowling by captain Shane Warne and Siddharth Trivedi helped Royals restrict the hosts to 137 for 8.

The Royals could have had Dhawan run out in the first ball of the match, but the throw from Ashok Menaria went wide and raced away for five overthrows, and then the southpaw hit the last ball of the first over bowled by Jacob Oram to the mid-off boundary. Jaggi then got into the action too as he hit consecutive boundaries off Amit Singh in the second over before he hit a boundary through the mid-off region in the third over bowled by Botha. Dhawan then hit a four and six off consecutive deliveries in the fifth over bowled by Singh, but he tried to go for one too many and was caught at deep midwicket in the same over as the bowler had the last laugh.

Trivedi, who was the pick of the Royals' bowlers, then got into the action as he had Deccan Chargers' captain Kumar Sangakkara caught behind by Paunikar before he clean bowled Bharat Chipli with a slower delivery as the hosts slipped to 53 for 3. Trivedi had confounded Chipli with a succession of slower deliveries before he finally pegged the stumps back. Jaggi's 28-ball knock of 25 was ended by Warne, who had him caught at long-on by Botha.

Warne was a tad expensive in his first two overs, but came back well to finish figures with 2-21, including the wicket of JP Duminy, who had hit him for a six over long-on. Duminy though then had a tough time picking Warne, as the legendary leg-spinner turned back the years to have the South African caught by his country man Botha before a sixth wicket partnership of 37 runs in 33 balls between Dan Christian and Ravi Teja gave the Chargers' supporters something to cheer about.

Christian, who had been bought by the Chargers for $900000 at the IPL-4 auction, gave a glimpse of his striking prowess, as he hit one boundary and walloped two sixes in his 19-ball 26 before he became Trivedi's third victim. Teja (28 in 20 balls), the top-scorer for the Chargers was severe on Stuart Binny in the penultimate over of his team's innings which helped them cross 130. Trivedi (3-15) and Warne (2-21) were the best of the Royals' bowlers, while Singh took three wickets but conceded 35 runs in his four overs.