Royals go top, Deccan still without a win
The Rajasthan Royals stormed to the top of the 2012 Indian Premier League standings with a five-wicket win over the Deccan Chargers in Tuesday's clash at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
The Rajasthan Royals stormed to the top of the 2012 Indian Premier League standings with a five-wicket win over the Deccan Chargers in Tuesday's clash at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
While it was Brad Hodge who set the tone in the pursuit thanks to a brisk 48 not out from just 21 balls, Dishant Yagnik emerged the ultimate hero.
Yanked into the Royals' XI a mere 20 minutes before the start of the play after Shreevats Goswami fell prey to injury, the wicketkeeper-batsman struck Dale Steyn for back-to-back boundaries in the final over of the fixture to seal the deal with two deliveries to spare.
Thoroughly trumping the fast bowler, the 28-year-old left-hander was promptly swamped by his triumphant team-mates.
Chasing a hefty target after half-centuries from Shikhar Dhawan and JP Duminy powered Deccan to 196 for two, Rajasthan initially enjoyed a fluid chase as Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane weighed in with 42 and 44 respectively.
The captain again did a fine job in leading from the front, while Rahane picked up on the superb run of form that brought him a century against the Royal Challengers Bangalore last week.
Three relatively quick wickets from leg-spinner Amit Mishra, though, soon had Hodge, Johan Botha and Yagnik needing to finish the job in swift fashion.
They dutifully obliged, finding the fence with great regularity, as the final 4.2 overs of the chase witnessed all of 62 runs. Shell-shocked and defeated, the Deccan Chargers were left to lament a poor defence that would have been considerably stronger had Steyn and Bharat Chipli not grassed an easy catch each.
Earlier Duminy, although ultimately upstaged by Hodge and company, repaid the faith the selectors displayed in him by picking the South African star ahead of former Australian Twenty20 captain Cameron White.
The hard-hitting left-hander powered his way through three fours and as many as five sixes en route to an unbeaten 58 from 26 deliveries. The Rajasthan attack fetched to all corners, with seamer Amit Singh proving particularly expensive in traveling for 55 runs in his four overs.
Tuesday's result carried the Royals to the top of the nine-team table on the back of four wins from six matches, while Deccan remained stone last after slumping to three defeats on the trot.
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