Sunday 7 April 2013

Royals pull off

          
   The Royals looked on track for 180 at least in their knock, but four wickets in the final two overs put that idea to rest, and it was skipper Rahul 'The Wall' Dravid's 65 and Stuart Binny's 40 off 20 balls that made sure of a decent score.Warner and young Indian batsman Unmukt Chand started off well and advanced to 39 without much fuss, before Chand (23) was clean bowled by countryman Sreesanth, who sent the stumps flying.The opening stand between Kushal Perera and Ajinkya Rahane only yielded 22 runs, but Dravid then joined up with his countryman and they pushed the score to 87. Rahane was then caught and bowled by Shahbaz Nadeem for 28.Juneja was dismissed with the score on 149, the first of Cooper's three victims, leaving Warner to continue with new partners. Brad Hodge, a former Australia player, was his countryman's downfall four runs later though, as Warner was short of his crease and a direct hit was affected. This was when Binny and Dravid joined forces, putting on 55 together in just four overs, Binny striking three sixes and two fours in that time. He was eventually sent packing by Umesh Yadav, who returned from injury to take four wickets.Cooper then continued to spear in the yorkers, preventing any meaningful runs from being scored. It looked do-able with eight needed off five, but Cooper used tow of those balls to get rid of Andre Russell and Johan Botha, leaving Delhi stranded.The wicket flurry at the end was courtesy of both Yadav and Ashish Nehra, who dismissed Kevon Cooper and Ashok Meneria with consecutive deliveries, making sure the final two overs went for only six runs.

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