Rajasthan Royals & Royal Challengers Bangalore faced each other to book their places in semi finals of IPL season 3. Both the teams have won 6 matches playing 12 matches in total, whoever wins this match they will be making their way to semi finals safely. But, whoever looses the match will have to win their final match against their opponents with a huge margin.
Rajasthan Royals played their home match today at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur. They won the toss & elected to bat first. Rajasthan Royals started their innings with the openers Michael Lumb & Naman Ojha. Initially they were looking good with good run rate, they had scored 16 runs in 2.1 overs. But, Rajasthan Royals lost their 3 important wickets in just 7 deliveries. Shane Watson played some good knock but even this did not do well for Rajasthan Royals as he gave a catch to Kevin Pietersen. Again 2 more wickets fell after the departure of Shane Watson, it was Abhishek Jhunjhunwala & Yusuf Pathan. Rajasthan Royals at this point of time, they had completed 13.1 overs & had scored 72 runs loosing 6 wickets. They fought back really well & completed 20 overs without loosing no more wickets & scored a total of 130 runs. Teams top scorer was Abhishek Raut who was unbeaten scoring 32 runs in just 20 balls.
Royal Challengers Bangalore had to score 131 runs in 20 overs which was not a big total at all for the team. Jacques Kallis was out by getting bowled in Kamran Khan's over, he played 3 deliveries & did not score a single run. They were maintaining run rate of around 10 runs per over & also were loosing wickets at a very long intervals. Kevin Pietersen was the who played extra-ordinary innings for the Royal Challengers. He scored 62 runs from just 29 deliveries which included 10 fours & 2 biggies. When Royal Challengers Bangalore lost kevin Pietersen, their run rate from 10 runs per over to around 8 runs per over. Ross Taylor completed the innings of Royal Challengers Bangalore by hitting a six. Royal Challengers Bangalore won the match by 5 wickets. They chased the target in 15.4 overs & now they are looking safe & are almost into the semi-finals. Man of the match was Kevin Pietersen.
