Rajasthan Royals 141 for 2 (Botha 67*, Steyn 2-18) beat Deccan Chargers 137 for 8 (Ravi Teja 28, Trivedi 3-15) Deccan Chargers were up against the mother of all jinxes. They had never won a game in front of their home crowd in Hyderabad, and had finished second-best in each of their six prior games against Rajasthan Royals. Things did not change at the end of their IPL 2011 opener against a limited, but inspired outfit, once again led well by Shane Warne. Sidharth Trivedi choked Deccan's run flow with a canny spell of slow bouncers, before Johan Botha, elevated to the No. 3 spot, guided them past the target of 138 in the 19th over.
Botha walked out to a pressure situation, after Amit Paunikar was snared by a vicious Dale Steyn away seamer in the sixth over, with the run-rate less than a run-a-ball. Clearly limited as a batsman, Botha resorted to singles unless bad balls came along. When they did, he ensured they were sent to the boundary. Pragyan Ojha was swept, Daniel Christian was scythed through the covers, Amit Mishra was reverse-swept and Steyn was pulled emphatically as the run-rate began to pick up. Rahul Dravid, however, continued to struggle and was eventually snared by a Steyn slower ball.
Amit Mishra piled on the pressure with a tight follow-up over, leaving Bangalore needing 54 off the last six overs. With the game in the balance, Botha glanced Christian for four before Ross Taylor laced into Mishra in the 16th over, cutting fine for four and lashing over deep square-leg for six. 32 required off 24 and advantage Rajasthan.
Steyn was not done though, producing an fourth over over that went for just two, including three successive slower balls that Botha could not get away. Ishant Sharma, who had looked zippy until then, let the game slip with a shoddy 18th over that was plundered for 15 runs. The over began with a no-ball and included a slew of length balls, the last of which Taylor catapulted over midwicket. Botha sealed things in the 19th, in the process marching past 50.
A visibly slimmer Shane Warne, with his eyebrows tweezed and sporting a brighter shade of blue than last year, kicked off Rajasthan Royals' 2011 season with a fluent spell of legspin and perceptive bowling changes, as Deccan Chargers finished with an underwhelming 137. Warne was assisted by his unsung seam attack, led by Siddharth Trivedi, who choked the run flow with canny slow bouncers. Deccan struggled to get used to the pace, and five of their batsmen succumbed in the 20s.
The tone for Deccan's nervy approach was set with the very first ball of the game: Shikhar Dhawan steered a length ball wide of point and set off for a quick single, but Ishank Jaggi slipped and stumbled on his way. Ashok Menaria's throw was, however, well off target and gifted four overthrows. Thereafter Jaggi settled into the futile routine of plonking the front foot across and going hard at the ball. He could not succeed, though, as the seamers gave him nothing to drive. Just as Dhawan began to size up the conditions, he slogged Amit Singh straight to deep midwicket.
Kumar Sangakkara has had a hectic week, losing the World Cup final, standing down as Sri Lanka captain and taking charge of the Deccan side. His stint with the new franchise got off to a poor start, though, as he edged an effort ball from Trivedi to the wicketkeeper. When Bharat Chipli inside-edged a heave across the line, Deccan were in some strife and things got worse when Jaggi dragged Warne to long-on.
JP Duminy slammed a Warne legbreak authoritatively down the ground for six, but thereafter rarely picked his clever sliders. He eventually succumbed to one, slicing a loft down to long-off as Deccan began to reprise a script their home crowd was now used to seeing.
For a while, Daniel Christian justified his whopping $900,000 price-tag, muscling Johan Botha and Amit Singh for sixes to haul his side past 100. Trivedi, however, ended the flurry in his second spell with another slow bouncer. Stuart Binny's trundlers in the 19th over revived the run-rate, as Ravi Teja picked up a couple of boundaries, but the final score of 137 will take some defending.
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