Rajasthan Royals vs Perth Scorchers, M15 - Report: CLT20-2013

The Rajasthan Royals sealed a semi-final berth in the Karbonn Smart CLT20 2013 after they defeated the Perth Scorchers by nine wickets at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. After putting the visitors to bat and dismissing them for 120, the Royals coasted to a win with 21 balls to spare. (Also Read: Rajasthan Royals vs Perth Scorchers, M15 - Stats Highlights: CLT20-2013)

The Royals skipper Rahul Dravid had his middle stump pegged back on the fourth delivery of the innings. But there was not too much drama during rest of the run-chase as Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson were involved in a mature partnership and guided their team home without any further damage. There was never a moment where they gave the visitors any semblance of a chance of defending the target. Both batsmen impressed with their shot selection and played some delightful strokes while at the crease; if young Samson was fluent through the leg-side caressing the ball off his pads, Rahane impressed with his sharp footwork and drives through the off-side. (Also Read: Sanju Samson: I Bat According To The Situation)

Rahane brought up his half-century in the 15th over when he stepped down the track and hit Michael Beer inside-out over the extra cover boundary. Samson brought up his half-century with a nudge to fine-leg.

The Royals finished at 121/1 in 16.3 overs and extended their winning streak at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium to 11 games. Rahane was unbeaten on 62, while Samson remained unconquered on 50.

Earlier, on a pitch where 360 runs were scored in 42 overs earlier in the match between the Otago Volts and Highveld Lions, the Perth Scorchers collapsed to 97/9, before a 23-run last-wicket stand took them past the 100-run mark. After a quiet start, where the openers picked up just one run from Ashok Menaria’s opening over, Liam Davis (18) got his team going when he picked up 13 runs from Vikramjeet Singh’s over. He perished in the third over when he attempted an aggressive stroke and picked the man at deep square-leg.

The Scorchers were in a respectable position at 61 for two after the eighth over. But the introduction of the leg-spinner Pravin Tambe and Kevon Cooper pushed the Australian club off course. Tambe beat Simon Katich with a googly and had him stumped, while Cooper picked up the wickets of Hilton Cartwright and innings top-scorer Adam Voges. Tambe dismissed Tom Triffitt in his second over, after which James Faulkner’s yorker hit the base of Joel Paris’ stumps.

Cooper returned to bowl in the 18th over and dismissed Joe Mennie and Ashton Turner off consecutive deliveries. The last-wicket pair of Michael Beer and Jason Behrendorff ensured that their team batted out their entire quota of overs, adding 23 runs in the process. The former was run-out off the last ball of the innings, while Behrendorff remained unbeaten on a run-a-ball 12. The shot selection of several of the Scorchers batsmen left a lot to be desired as the team finished their 20 overs at 120, 16 of which came through extras.

Cooper (4/18) was the pick of the Royals bowlers, while Faulker (2/16), Tambe (2/17) and Shane Watson (1/23) were the other wicket-takers.

Trivia: The Perth Scorchers innings had 61 dot balls in all.

The longest partnership in the Perth Scorchers innings was the third-wicket partnership between Simon Katich and Adam Voges. It lasted 4.4 overs.

Three Rajasthan Royals bowlers – James Faulkner, Pravin Tambe and Kevon Cooper – finished with economy rates of under five runs per over.

Man of the Match: Kevon Cooper for his four wickets.

Ajinkya Rahane: It was a really nice pitch, good for bowlers and batsmen. This wicket was not fast compared to what we played against Mumbai Indians but the ball was doing a bit and holding its line. It was slightly tough initially but was easier later to bat on. I enjoy batting with Sanju, we were just talking about positive cricket while batting. We just need to concentrate on the next game and stay positive.

Simon Katich: We are learning the hard way, we didn't get many partnerships going and were about 50-60 short there. Out bowlers tried their best but nothing worked. We presented four caps the other day and that in itself is tough. Hopefully we'll get a fair bit of this before the Big Bash. We've seen how big the standard is here form the Big Bash and it's a different ball game. We're gonna have to try harder in the next few days.

Rahul Dravid: It's nice to win and play well. It was a really good and clinical performance today. We can always improve and we can keep getting better, we also take a lot of satisfaction from the match today. Our bowlers pulled it back brilliantly today, like Jimmy, Coops and a lot of professionalism from Samson and Rahane who batted very well. Our next game is a big one and Otago is playing very good cricket, they are the team in form.

Kevon Cooper: Hapy to come out here and bowl well and give my team a chance of winning. The yorker is something I practice e a lot, it's very important in this format. It's great to play with players like Dravid, Watson and we sit and plan every game with the support staff. We wanted to play good cricket here and happy to do that.

source: clt20.com