Indian Premier League
The Rajasthan Royals side continued with their dominant display of cricket, beating the top placed Mumbai side. On the same day, the Pune Warriors India side suffered yet another humiliating defeat at the hands of Bangalore.
The Royals will try to extend their winning streak when they meet the suffering Pune side at Jaipur. The Rajasthan side is looking pretty confident after two back to back wins. Ever since their defeat to Punjab, there is no looking back for the Royals. They registered their 2nd consecutive win, beating Mumbai at home. The credit for the recent success must be heavily awarded to the bowling department. The bowling has been simply outstanding. Before the Mumbai game, the Royals trashed the Kochi side by 8 wickets. The bowlers stood up, restricting the Kochi side for a mere 109. The Rajasthan faced the in-form Mumbai side and yet again it was the bowling attack that joined the party, restricting the Mumbai side for a moderate total of 94.
The Rajasthan side will look to carry on their good form, both with the bat and ball. The batting lineup is quite impressive as well, with Dravid and Watson in fine touch. Botha on the other hand is the stand out performer for the Royals, contributing both with his batting and bowling abilities. The Royals have nothing much to worry about, considering the kind of form the team is in. They face the struggling Pune side at home which will be a big advantage, as Rajasthan are indeed the ‘ROYALS’ at home.
On the other hand, the Pune Warriors are going nowhere in the tournament. They are placed 9th in the table, just ahead of Delhi, courtesy to a better run rate. Pune just have 4 points from 7 games which seems quite unpleasant. The Warriors are on a losing spree, suffering 5 defeats in a row. They started the tournament on a high by winning two consecutive games and looked strong for qualifying in the latter stages of the tournament. But ever since then, it has been a miserable journey for them, the recent coming against the Bangalore side. The team looks out of sorts, following their regular poor display with the batting and the bowling attack failing to perform constantly.
The batting lineup is quite strong, but it is not clicking at the moment. Ryder, Yuvraj and Uthappa are the only three looking impressive, though none of them are able to see the team through. Ryder, the highest run getter for Pune, stumbles at every crucial juncture and so is Uthappa. The bowling too isn’t impressive and can be termed as just ‘ordinary’.
The glimpse of standing a chance in the tournament is quite narrow for the Warriors, but if they can win a couple of matches, who knows what’s next in store for the Warriors. However, Pune will have no other option but to win against the Royals. The Pune side has so far failed to live up to the expectations of their fans. The team has nothing to lose and they will surely try to regain the lost pride and surely have to fight like ‘WARRIORS”.
Key Players:
Pune Warriors India: Ryder, Uthappa, Yuvraj.
Rajasthan Royals: Dravid, Watson, Warne.
Match Details:
Venue: Jaipur
Match Day and Date: Sunday, 1st May.
Timings: 4.00 p.m., IST.
Tags: Cricket, Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL 2011, IPL 4, Pune Warriors India, PWI, Rajasthan Royals, RR
