Buoyant RR eye revenge against RCB
29 April 2013 1:00 AM GMT
High on confidence after their emphatic win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals would be eyeing revenge when they host Royal Challengers Bangalore in an IPL match on Monday.
Rajasthan are presently lying third in the standings with 10 points from eight games, where as, RCB are at the top with 12 points from nine matches. But it is the Jaipur outfit which will be brimming with confidence ahead of tomorrow’s encounter, especially after crushing the Sunrisers by eight wickets on Saturday.
Australian Shane Watson has been in cracking form with the bat for Rajasthan while his compatriot James Faulkner has been deadly with the ball. Watson and Faulkner starred for Rajasthan in their win over Sunrisers yesterday. While Faulkner picked up five wickets for 20 runs to restrict Sunrisers to 144, Watson smashed an unbeaten 98 off 53 balls to overwhelm the target with ease.
At home, Rajasthan holds an invincible record so far in the tournament, winning all the four games they had played at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. And expectedly, the Rahul Dravid-led side would fancy their chances on Monday and would be hoping to extract revenge against RCB, who defeated Rajasthan by seven wickets when the two sides met earlier at Bangalore.
But things have changed since then for Rajasthan. Watson, who cracked a superb 101 against Chennai Super Kings earlier, has been in sublime form. He has so far amassed 273 runs from six games at an average of 54.60.
Dravid himself has led Rajasthan from the front and has been one the team’s main contributors with the bat along with young Ajinkya Rahane. If Dravid, Rahane and Watson provide solidity to Rajasthan’s batting, Brad Hodge, Dishant Yagnik and Stuart Binny provide the flamboyance needed to accelerate.
On the bowling front, Rajasthan have a smart customer in left-arm pacer Faulkner who has emerged the highest wicket-taker so far with 16 wickets from just six games. Off-spinner Ajit Chandila also looks impressive upfront, but Dravid would be little concerned about the form of his other bowlers as Rajasthan allowed Sunrisers to get off the hook after reducing them to 29/6 in their last game.
Rajasthan are presently lying third in the standings with 10 points from eight games, where as, RCB are at the top with 12 points from nine matches. But it is the Jaipur outfit which will be brimming with confidence ahead of tomorrow’s encounter, especially after crushing the Sunrisers by eight wickets on Saturday.
Australian Shane Watson has been in cracking form with the bat for Rajasthan while his compatriot James Faulkner has been deadly with the ball. Watson and Faulkner starred for Rajasthan in their win over Sunrisers yesterday. While Faulkner picked up five wickets for 20 runs to restrict Sunrisers to 144, Watson smashed an unbeaten 98 off 53 balls to overwhelm the target with ease.
At home, Rajasthan holds an invincible record so far in the tournament, winning all the four games they had played at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. And expectedly, the Rahul Dravid-led side would fancy their chances on Monday and would be hoping to extract revenge against RCB, who defeated Rajasthan by seven wickets when the two sides met earlier at Bangalore.
But things have changed since then for Rajasthan. Watson, who cracked a superb 101 against Chennai Super Kings earlier, has been in sublime form. He has so far amassed 273 runs from six games at an average of 54.60.
Dravid himself has led Rajasthan from the front and has been one the team’s main contributors with the bat along with young Ajinkya Rahane. If Dravid, Rahane and Watson provide solidity to Rajasthan’s batting, Brad Hodge, Dishant Yagnik and Stuart Binny provide the flamboyance needed to accelerate.
On the bowling front, Rajasthan have a smart customer in left-arm pacer Faulkner who has emerged the highest wicket-taker so far with 16 wickets from just six games. Off-spinner Ajit Chandila also looks impressive upfront, but Dravid would be little concerned about the form of his other bowlers as Rajasthan allowed Sunrisers to get off the hook after reducing them to 29/6 in their last game.
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