Tag IPL-2012

Ajinkya Rahane has been the most prolific batsman in Indian domestic cricket for past few years. He showed his class late last year when given a chance to wear Indian colors but soon selectors omitted him in favor of some other stroke-makers. Stroke-maker? Ajinkya Rahane today proved he's less than no one, blasting Bangalore bowlers all around Chinnaswamy stadium, staking a strong claim for national cap once again..

Having missed a century by two runs against Kings XI Punjab a week ago, today Rahane completed his short term goal by notching up the three figure score, adding rapid 121 runs with Owais Shah who himself scored a fifty off just 19 balls, raising a tall total on board to which home team had no answers, winning the match by solid 59 runs margin, reaching the top of the points table. here's how the story unfolded.

Chinnaswamy stadium has had the best pitch among all other venues in IPL since last year and hence both captains wanted to bat first and put pressure on chasing side. Rahul Dravid, at his home venue as away captain, got lucky with the coin toss and opened the innings with Rahane. It was a watchful start from Rajasthan, reaching 62 runs from first 10 overs before Dravid was stumped off Vettori, making way for Owais Shah. Fifty run partnership off 27 balls soon turned into hundred off just 41 balls with sixes flying everywhere.

Rahane hit Sreenath Aravind for six fours in an over and reached his century in the last over of the innings. Rajasthan collected 134 runs off last 10 overs!

Bangalore were given a good start by Mayank Agarwal and Chris Gayle but lanky Pankaj Singh, playing his first match of the season, extracted good bounce off the pitch to claim both openers a ball apart to break home team's hearts. No threat was posed by RCB batters down the order and Rajasthan eased themselves to a handsome win.

Rajasthan Royals innings (elected to bat)
Batsman		R	B	4s	6s
Rahul Dravid	st de Villiers b Vettori	25	32	2	0
Ajinkya Rahane	not out	103	60	12	5
Owais Shah	c Vinay Kumar b Zaheer Khan	60	26	5	5
Brad Hodge	not out	1	2	0	0
Ashok Menaria
Shreevats Goswami
Johan Botha
Brad Hogg
Amit Singh
Sidharth Trivedi
Pankaj Singh
Extra :	6 (byes=4, lbye=1, wide=1)
Total :	195 runs in 20 overs for 2 wicket. RR = ( 9.75 ).
Fall of wickets : 1-62 (Dravid, 10.2ov), 2-183 (Shah, 18.4ov)

Bowler	Overs	Maiden	Runs	W	Extra
Zaheer Khan	4	1	15	1
Srinath Aravind	3	0	48	0
R Vinay Kumar	4	0	51	0
Daniel Vetorri	4	0	20	1
Muthiah Muralitharan	4	0	35	0
Chris Gayle	1	0	21	0	1 wide

Royal Challengers Bangalore innings (target = 196 from 20 overs)
Batsman		R	B	4s	6s
Mayank Agarwal	c Shah b Pankaj Singh	34	21	3	3
Chris Gayle	b Pankaj Singh	8	9	0	1
Virat Kohli	b Trivedi	22	18	2	0
AB de Villiers	b Trivedi	6	9	0	0
Saurabh Tiwary	b Trivedi	17	16	0	1
Mohammad Kaif	c Hodge b Botha	14	16	1	0
Daniel Vettori	b Trivedi	1	2	0	0
R Vinay Kumar	b Amit Singh	11	9	1	0
Zaheer Khan	c Rahane b Hogg	0	3	0	0
Srinath Aravind	not out	14	8	3	0
Muthiah Muralitharan	c Rahane b Amit Singh	6	8	0	0
Extra :	3 (lbye=1, wides=2)
Total :	136 runs in 19.5 overs for 10 wicket. RR = ( 6.85 ).
Fall of wickets : 1-42 (Agarwal, 4.4 ov), 2-42 (Gayle, 4.6 ov), 3-69 (de Villiers, 8.4 ov), 4-78 (Kohli, 10.3 ov), 5-101 (Tiwary, 14.1 ov), 6-103 (Vettori, 14.4 ov), 7-107 (Kaif, 15.4 ov), 8-116 (Vinay Kumar, 16.5 ov), 9-120 (Khan, 17.2 ov), 10-136 (Muralitharan, 19.5 ov)

Bowler	Overs	Maiden	Runs	W	Extra
Johan Botha	4	0	30	1
Pankaj Singh	4	0	18	2
Amit Singh	3.5	0	43	2
Brad Hogg	4	0	19	1
Sidharth Trivedi	4	0	25	4	1 wide