another reverse-sweeps seals the victory, Rajasthan vaults into second spot, that was a thoroughly dominant performance from them, Kochi's winning streak comes to an end
Kochi vs RR, 28th match at Jaipur, IPL, Apr 24 2011 - Ball by Ball Commentary
RR won by 8 wickets (with 35 balls remaining)
Mojo: "@belford That won't work. Standard reply will be "It just wasn;t our day. Everything went wrong for us today""
Here's the latest points table.
Kochi need to forget this game quick, nothing went right - the batsmen didn't fire, the bowlers couldn't make the breakthroughs and the fielding was abysmal.
Shane Watson: "I was scratchy to start with, it was nice to hit a few big boundaries towards the end. It is normally a good wicket here, was a bit two-paced today, and good for the bowling side. I love opening, but will bat wherever Warnie wants me to."
Vasco da Gama: "This IPL, for home matches, teams seem to have started preparing wickets that suit them best, unlike previous seasons. Today was the best example ." And Delhi yesterday.
Nimit: "Just feel that rain abandoned match between RR and RCB proved to be a beneficiary for both the teams .... that single odd point can prove to be very very crucial for both the teams."
Aditi: "@Mojo: It wouldn't be far from the truth, though. Yes, the presentation is more inane than it needs to be most of the times, but ultimately the teams that need to find answers for themselves, not the commentators."
Liz Hurley says: "I have never been to watch any sports game in my life before this tournament. We might go see some tigers perhaps, and also you know encourage people to bowl well, bat well."
Raj Kundra: "I was dying to get Liz to see a home game, since this is what we are about. I don't think we should change the winning squad, we should keep the same for the next few games."
Here's the presentation ceremony.
First up, Mahela Jayawardene: "It was going to be a tough task with the dew, we needed another 20-30 runs, we didn't bat well and they bowled well up front. Rahul and Watto showed their experienced, played really well. After the start we had, I thought 120-130 was a good score, but we couldn't execute, plenty to learn from this. It is a close table, we need to keep focus."
Next is the winning cpatain, Shane Warne: "Our intensity was very good from ball one, the boys showed a lot of character today, it was a satisfying win, Watson is such a super player, arguably the best player in the world at moment. we don't look too much at the table, we are still at the halfway stage. We have four-five days off now, looking forward to that." Warne is Man of the Match as well.
The IPL tables remains very tight as we progressed towards the halfway stage of this tournament.
That's it from us at ESPNcricinfo, thanks for all the mails and the banter. see you at tomorrow's IPL game. Till then, ta ta!
gets forward and drives towards long-off to pick off a couple
Ross Taylor is the new man in
no half-century for Watson, he looked to work a fullish ball towards the leg side, it was flat and fired in, Watson misses and legstump is on the ground, Jadeja enjoys the moment
brutality from Watson, he moves on to 49 with a muscled hit down the ground, much too quick for long-on or long-off to do anything about it
skips away from leg and guides the ball to short third man
worked to short fine leg for a single
more awful fielding, Botha brings out the reverse-sweep, powers a full toss past the fielder at backward point, he should have stopped that one and conceded at most a single
Arvind: "@Ryan, wouldn't it be more fun to ask the players to describe the performance of their teammates without using the words "unlucky" and "quality player""
rocks back and carves that past point to end the over
another six from Watson, this game is getting over in a hurry, the Rajasthan crowd are delighted, this time Watto swats it to cow corner for a six that just about clears the ropes
big lbw from Murali after Watson is struck on the pads, that was going down, Murali was hopping up and down as he appealed furiously
finally the first of the sixes the crowd came to see from Watson, who gets a massive stride and slugs that one over long-on for a huge six
Watson goes down on one knee, and swipes the ball to deep square leg
cut back in from a length, batsman is caught on the crease but he manages to stab it well wide of the keeper
heaved towards deep midwicket for a single this time
thumped towards deep midwicket by Watson, a dive from Hodge stops the ball from going for four
length ball on offstump, defended towards short cover
short and outside off, slammed towards deep midwicket by Botha
short ball from Vinay to start a new spell, Watson was in position to play the pull early but it was a slower ball, it was a top edge from Watson, takes the ball down to fine leg
length ball just outside off, dropped towards off, batsman sets off for a single before being asked to turn back by Watson
Over 15 • RR 111/2
RR won by 8 wickets (with 35 balls remaining)