Sunday, April 10, 2011

Warne's Royals coast to victory; De Villiers stars in Challengers win


(CNN) -- Rajasthan Royals eased their way to an eight-wicket victory over the Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League on Saturday.
AB de Villiers smashes his way to an unbeaten 54 which sealed victory for the Bangalore Royal Challengers in Kochi.
South African spinner Johan Botha was the star with the bat, hitting eight fours and a six in an unbeaten 67 off just 47 balls as Rajasthan passed Deccan's total of 137 for eight with seven balls to spare at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Botha, who was promoted to number three in the order, received good support from the veteran India batsman Rahul Dravid, who scored 28, while New Zealand's Ross Taylor chipped in with 21 not out.
Put into bat by Rajasthan captain, Shane Warne, Deccan openers got off to a brisk start, but once Shikhar Dhawan and Ishank Jaggi were out, the runs dried up and wickets continued to fall with Siddharth Trivedi and Amit Singh claiming three victims each, while Warne bagged two.
Australian Daniel Christian (26 runs) and Ravi Teja (28) boosted Deccan's run rate towards the end of the innings but it couldn't disguise a shortage of runs.
Meanwhile, in the other IPL match played Saturday, the Bangalore Royal Challengers beat the Kochi Tuskers Kerala by six wickets at the Nehru Stadium, Kochi.
An unbeaten half-century from South Africa's AB de Villiers helped the Challengers overhaul a Tuskers total of 161 for five with eight balls to spare.
Earlier, New Zealand's Brendon McCullum and Indian legend VVS Laxman got the Tuskers off to a flier scoring at nearly 10-an-over until Laxman was out for 36 in the ninth over. McCullum followed two overs later for 45 from just 32 balls.
A quickfire 27 from Australia's Brad Hodge and 23 not out from India's Ravindra Jadeja helped push the score past 150.
But De Villiers' 54 was the star turn of the match. His 40-ball unbeaten innings included five sixes and gave his team the momentum at a crucial time in the match.

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