Victory jumped on the account Rajasthan Royals

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Royals won over Kings XI Punjab by 31 runs. During the match while Dravid and Brad Hodge went too hard at the bowling and mistimed their shots, Rahane seemed to have the right stroke for almost every delivery. The orthodoxy of his batting was evident from the fact that he hit 16 fours, and only one six. There was no slog-sweep over midwicket, there was no scoop over short fine leg.

There were punches on the up through cover, there were deft guides past point, and inside-out lofts over extra cover. Kings XI were put under pressure early on when James Faulkner’s first over went for 11. Rahane tore into Praveen Kumar in the third over, a drive, two flicks and a straight push bringing him four fours in five deliveries.

The introduction of spin slowed the scoring a bit but Rahane soon found a way. He was beaten in the flight by a Piyush Chawla delivery, but quickly recovered to go back and punch it over the bowler’s head for four. He was soon stepping out repeatedly to negate the spinners.

Adam Gilchrist tried Paul Valthaty’s slow-mediums but Rahane took 16 more off that over, his third boundary of the over threading the gap between two point fielders.

Royals lost Dravid and Ashok Menaria in consecutive overs, the 10th and the 11th, but that made no difference to the flow of the innings. Rahane raced towards a century with three consecutive fours off Chawla but was bowled on 98 by Faulker as he tried to make room outside leg, typically, not to slog, but to go through extra cover.

Owais Shah and Trinidad & Tobago’s Kevon Cooper, on IPL debut, launched Royals past 190 but the damage had already been done by Rahane. He didn’t use power or swagger, he didn’t need to, but still hurt Kings XI.