Royal Challengers beat Chennai, to meet DC in Finals!

The two South Indian teams that would clash in the finals are Hyderabad Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers.

In the second semi final, Royal Challengers beat the tournament favorite Chennai Super Kings by 6 wickets with 7 balls remaining.

I would say that the batsmen of CSK let them down than the bowlers. Restricting 147 in the knock-out stage is always difficult especially in a batting wicket.

Kumble asked Chennai to bat first who scored 146 in 20 overs losing 5 wickets. Parthiv Patel top scored with 36 and for Royal Challengers, Pandey top scored with 44. He played a wonderful innings and all the fours were treat to the eyes! His century in the previous match must have added lot of confidence to the batsmen!

The teams finished last in the first season have bounced back very well to meet in the finals!

So, it is DC v. RC in the final.

Match 56: RC v. DC: RC win and Enter Semi, DC lose, still enter semi on Better NRR!

Magnificiant century--the first by an Indian in the IPL, Pandey, took Bangalore to the third position in the table. This is the second century in this season with the first one from Delhi's DeVillier--an unbeaten 105 against CSK.

Pandey single handedly played superb innings reaching 50 in just 36 balls. His next fifty came in 31 balls giving him a wonderful experience! This is an important match for RC as the winners of this match get a place to the semi-finals. The loser, on comparision of Net Run Rate with Kings XI will qualify.

Deciding to bat, RC lost Kallis in the 2nd over for 5. Pandey scored most of the runs for RC as they ended the innings at 170. Pandey scored unbeaten 114 in 73 balls which had 10 fours and 4 sixes.

At the end of 10 overs, RC were 64 for 2 and expected to score another 70-80 runs and end the innings at 140-150.

Pandey opened his shoulders in the 11th over with two continuous sixes of Suman. He hit 2 fours of RP Singh in the 14th over. Dravid was out in the 15th over, but that did not stop Pandey from scoring 2 fours and take RC to 116 for 3 in 15 overs.

Jaskaran Singh went for 16 runs in the 16th over including a six and two fours. At the end of 18 overs, RC were 139 for 4. Harris bowled the 19th and conceeded 8 runs.

The last over helped RC to a challenging total. RP Singh went for 2 in the first ball of the 20th over. The second ball was a six while single was scored in the third.

Kohli scored a six, a two and finished the innings with a six. RP Singh, the winner of Purple Cap went for 23 runs in the last over.

During chase, Gibbs and Gilchrist scored 22 runs of the 5th over to take DC to 45 for no loss. The last over of powerplay from Merwe went for 19 runs including four byes and 2 sixes from Gibbs. It looked like these guys are leading the fight.

Akhil gave the break through by taking Gilchrist's wicket caught by Merwe. Last 10 overs needed 86. Suman was out in the last ball of the 11th over to Kumble.

Gibbs was out in the 15th over and DC were 119 for 3 in 15 requiring 52 in 30 balls.

Symonds was bowled by Merwe, the crucial wicket. Venugopal and Rohit Sharma succumbed to pressure as DC finished with 158 for 6.

If DC had reached this target in 11.3 overs, RC would have been eliminated and Kings XI Punjab entered the last four. But 170 in 11.3 overs, is next to impossible.

So, the four teams that qualified for the semi finals are: Delhi Daredevils (DD), Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Bangalore Royal Challengers (RC), and Hyderabad Deccan Chargers (DC)

Delhi Daredevils will play Hyderabad Decccan Chargers on March 22, 2009 at 8:00 PM IST in the 1st semi final;

Bangalore Royal Challengers will play Chennai Super Kings on March 23, 2009 at 8:00 PM IST in the 2nd semi final.

Scoreboard:

Match # 56
Date: Thursday May 21, 2009
Teams: Bangalore Royal Challengers v. Hyderabad Deccan Chargers
Captains: Kumble and Gilchrist
Toss: RC, decided to bat
Venue: SuperSport Park, Centurion
Result: RC won by 12 runs
Points: RC 2; DC 0
Man of the Match: M Pandey off RC

Royal Challengers Innings:

Batsman	How Out	Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Kallis	c Suman b RP Singh	5	7	0	0
Pandey	Not Out	114	73	10	4
Merwe	st Gilchrist b Symonds	23	18	3	1
Dravid	c Gibbs b Ojha	6	9	0	0
Taylor	c RP Singh b Ojha	1	4	0	0
Kohli	Not Out	19	9	0	2
Extras	(lb 1, w 1)	2	-	-	-
Total	for 4 wkts in 20 overs	170	-	-	-

Fall of Wickets: 1-7 (Kallis, 1.6 ov), 2-62 (van der Merwe, 9.2 ov), 3-107 (Dravid, 14.2 ov), 4-134 (Taylor, 16.6 ov)

Bowler	O	M	R	W
Harris	4	0	25	0
RP Singh	4	0	47	1
Symonds	4	0	15	1
Jaskaran Singh	3	0	32	0
Ojha	4	0	32	2
T Suman	1	0	18	0

Deccan Chargers Innings:

Batsman	How Out	Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Gilchrist	c Merwe b Akhil	15	18	2	0
Gibbs	c Pandey b Akhil	60	43	3	4
T Suman	c Merwe b Kumble	12	12	1	0
Symonds	b Merwe	18	15	1	1
R Sharma	c Kohli b Kumble	12	12	1	0
Venugopal	Run Out (Boucher/P Kumar)	8	9	0	0
Bilakhia	Not Out	16	8	2	0
Harris	Not Out	4	3	0	0
Extras	(b 4, lb 3, w 6)	13	-	-	-
Total	for 6 wkts in 20 overs	158	-	-	-

Fall of Wickets: 1-68 (Gilchrist, 6.5 ov), 2-91 (Suman, 10.6 ov), 3-116 (Gibbs, 14.1 ov), 4-119 (Symonds, 15.1 ov), 5-137 (Venugopal Rao, 17.5 ov), 6-138 (Sharma, 18.1 ov)

Bowler	O	M	R	W
Kumble	4	0	23	2
Kallis	1	0	8	0
P Kumar	4	0	45	0
Merwe	4	0	32	1
Akhil	4	0	18	2
Kohli	3	0	25	0

Match 59: Final: Rajasthan Roayls Win the First IPL!

Rajasthan Royals win the last ball thriller and clinched the first IPL trophy by 3 wickets! The last over required 8 runs and the last ball required 1 run which Sohail Tanvir scored by puling it between mid wicket and mid on.

Click here to read the Ball-by-Ball Commentary

Match 59 - Final

Venue: Mumbai

Date: June 1, 2008

Teams: Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals

Captains: Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Shane Warne

Toss: Rajasthan Royals and decided to field

Result: Rajasthan Royals won by 3 wickets with 0 balls remaining

Man of the Match: Yousuf Pathan off Rajasthan Royals (India)

Score:

Chennai Super Kings 163 for 5 in 20 overs (PA Patel 38, S Vidyut 16, SK Raina 43, JA Morkel 16, MS Dhoni 29 not out, CK Kapugedera 8, S Badrinath 6 not out, Extras-7 (b 1, leg bye 2, wide 3, no ball 1), Sohail Tanvir 4-0-40-1, SR Watson 4-0-29-1, MM Patel 2-0-14-0, YK Pathan 4-0-22-3, SK Trivedi 2-0-21-0, SK Warne 4-0-34-0) lost to Rajasthan Royals 164 for 7 in 20 overs (NK Patel 2, SA Asnodkar 28, Kamran Akmal 6, SR Watson 28, YK Pathan 56, M Kaif 12, RA Jadeda 0, SK Warne 9 not out, Sohail Tanvir 9 not out, Extras-14 (b 1, leg bye 6, wide 5, no ball 2), M Ntini 4-1-21-0, M Gony 4-0-30-1, JA Morkel 4-0-25-2, L Balaji 4-0-42-0, M Muralitharan 4-0-39-2)

Match 57, Semi Final 1: Rajasthan Enters Final!

In the first knock-out stage, Rajasthan beat Delhi and entered the finals of the first IPL season. They have beaten comfortably and will wait for a day to see who their opponent will be.

Put into bat, Royals started their innings with the openers crossing 50 for the first wicket. In the crucial game, both Smith and Asnodkar played sensibly and added 65 for the first wicket before Maharoof provided the break through by dismissing Smith caught by Dhawan for 25. In the same over, Asnodkar got out caught by Tiwari for 39 off 21 balls with 6 fours and a six. Though McGrath gave good start for Delhi by just giving 1 run in the first over, he was not able to sustain it. He went for 7 runs including a four in his second over and then for 3 continuous fours by smith.

Asnodkar was dropped on 23 by Maharoof in the fine leg when he tried to pull Mahesh. In the same over he hit a six and a four as Rajasthan reached 58 for no loss in 6 overs.

Sohail Tanvir was sent as number 3 for maintaining the tempo, but he fell chepaly for 5 for Maharoof. Watson and Kaif added 52 runs for the 4th wicket in 29 balls. Dangerous batsman Watson once again proved that he is there for scoring runs as quick as possible. He scored 52 off 29 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes.

Watson went over Mahesh with 2 sixes and a four to score 21 runs in an over. Kaif was bowled by Mishra for 12, once again did not scorre for his team.

Yousuf Pathan continued with ihs form scoring 45 off 21 balls with 3 fours and 4 sixes. His innings along with Watson proved vital for Rajasthan and Delhi should accpet that they both took the game away from Delhi Daredevils.

Rajasthan ended their innings with 192 on the board. Maharoof finished with 3 for 34 in his 4 overs.

Read: Man of the Match List

Read: Points Table

Read: IPL Scores Table!

Delhi started with their star openers Sehwag and Gambhir. The start was not as good as Delhi would have expected. Sehwag was caught by Kohli off Watson for 3. Gambhir followed him soon in the last ball of the 4th over leaving Delhi struggle at 23 for 2.

Dhawan and Tiwari were not able to withstand the pressure and the huge run chase. They fell for 5 and duck respectively. Dilshan scored 33 and provided some resistence. Karthik, who scored 50 and took Delhi to semi-finals added 10 this time.

All batsman except Gambhir, Dilshan and Kathik, got out for single digit score and that did not do any good for Delhi.

They were bowled out for 87 in 16.1 overs and denied themselves a chance to enter finals.

SR Watson was declared man of the match for his 52 and 3 wickets.

Match 57 - Semi Final 1
Venue: Mumbai
Date: May 31, 2008
Teams: Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils
Captains: Shane Warne and Virendra Sehwag
Toss: Delhi Daredevils and decided to field
Result: Rajasthan Royals won by 105 runs
Man of the Match: SR Watson off Rajasthan Royals (Australia)
Score:

Rajasthan Royals 192 for 9 in 20 overs (GC Smith 25, SA Asnodkar 39, Sohail Tanvir 5, SR Watson 52, M Kaif 12, YK Pathan 45, RA Jadeja 7, SK Warne 0, M Rawat 2, MM Patel 0 not out, SK Trivedi 1 not out, Extras-4 (lb 1, wide 3), GD McGrath 4-0-38-0, Mohammad Asif 4-0-32-1, VY Mahesh 4-0-50-2, MH Maharoof 4-0-34-3, A Mishra 4-0-37-2) beat Delhi Daredevils 87 all out in 16.1 overs (G Gambhir 11, V Sehwag 3, S Dhawan 5, MK Tiwary 0, TM Dilshan 33, KD Karthik 10, MF Maharoof 6, A Mishra 2, VY Mahesh 3, Mohammad Asif 3, GD McGrath 4 not out, Extras-7 (lb 3, wide 4), Sohail Tanvir 2-0-16-0, SR Watson 3-0-10-3, MM Patel 4-0-17-3, SK Trivedi 3-0-20-1, SK Warne 4-0-21-2, RA Jadeja 0.1-0-0-0, Yuvaraj Singh 1-0-20-0)

Read: Man of the Match List

Read: Points Table

Read: IPL Scores Table!

The second semi final is between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings in the same ground.