Royal Challengers Bangalore Win the Battle of the Royals

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Royal Challengers Bangalore Win the Battle of the Royals

Pitched By Sharad Chikara

Sunday, 19 April 2009

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Saturday, April 18th, 2009, Cape Town - The Rajasthan Royals became the second of last years finalists to lose on the opening day of the DFL Indian Premier League at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday, when they were soundly beaten by the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 75 runs in the second game of the double header.

Earlier, the Chennai Super Kings had lost to the Mumbai Indians. The Rajasthan Royals score of 58 all out set a new record for the lowest innings total in the DLF IPL yet, beating the 62 all out scored by the Kolkata Knight Riders against the Mumbai Indians in Mumbai last year. Only three Rajasthan Royals batsmen got into double figures as Anil Kumble, with figures of 5/5, Jesse Ryder, 2/14 and Praveen Kumar, 2/7 tore the heart out of the batting of last year's DLF IPL champions. Kumble's figures are the second-best in DLF IPL history.

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The Rajasthan Royals had decimated the Royal Challengers Bangalore batting in their turn in the field, with England all-rounder and T20 specialist Dimitri Mascarenhas claiming 3/20 off his four overs, restricting the Royal Challengers to 133/8. But they fell prey to the Newlands voodoo for teams batting second in limited-overs matches in day-night games in Cape Town. Only five of the 25 day-night games held at Newlands since 1992 have been won by the team batting second

So, when Pietersen smiled after he won the toss and chose to bat first, he had good reason to do so, but that smile had left his face after the first three balls when his team had lost two batsmen without any runs being

Kevin bats

put on the board. Jesse Ryder, the big-hitting New Zealander, got an inside edge off Mascarenhas to wicket -keeper Mahesh Rawat, before the England all-rounder, bowling an accurate line and length, bowled the other New Zealander in the Bangalore team for a duck with the next ball.

Pietersen strode to the wicket, and after getting his team off the mark with a four, set about restoring some decency to his team's innings, and after the dismissal of Robin Uthappa, again by Mascarenhas, he was joined by Rahul Dravid in the middle. RR cheerleaders

The two put on 33 valuable runs before Pietersen got through a shot off the bowling off Tyron Henderson too soon and was caught at midwicket by Niraj Patel for 32. Dravid weathered the storm, and as Warne wreaked havoc on the batsmen around him, befuddling Virat Kohil and Balachandra Akhil, with flight and spin, bowling them both, the former Indian captain scored what turned out to be a vital 66.

Praveen Kumar started the ball rolling for the Royal Challengers, having Swapnil Asnodkar caught by Dravid in the first over. Graeme Smith, the captain of South Africa who had flown in from Johannesburg on Saturday morning after playing against Australia at the Wanderers.

on Friday night, was the next out, caught by Dravid off Kumar for 2. When Henderson and Mascarenhas were out, the Royals were left at 28/5, a position from which they had little chance of victory. The next five wickets fell for just 30 runs and the Royal Challengers had a convincing victory.

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