Sport | Cricket
Rajasthan Royals win inaugural IPL title
The Rajasthan Royals carved out a niche for themselves winning the first-ever IPL.
- By K.R. Nayar, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:22 June 1, 2008
- Image Credit:
Dubai: The Rajasthan Royals carved out a niche for themselves in the history of Twenty20 cricket by winning the first-ever Indian Premier League tournament at the D.Y. Patil Sports Academy stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
Through a sterling allround performance by Yousuf Pathan, they royally announced themselves as the champions, defeating the Chennai Super Kings by three wickets in a pulsating finish.
Shane Warne proved to be not only an outstanding leader, but also a splendid coach. He moulded a young team of little-known players into champions. He also sparkled with the bat during the nail-biting stages of the match.
The IPL lived up to its full glamour with the winners being decided off only the last ball of the match with Sohail Tanvir hitting the winning run.
Determined Warne
A determined Warne won the toss and elected to field. Chennai's in-form opener Parthiv Patel provided a brilliant start unleashing a few lofted shots off Tanvir and Shane Watson. Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, son of former Tamil Nadu opener V. Sivaramakrishnan, also played some well-placed shots and the pair put on 29 runs in just 4 overs.
Skipper Warne introduced Pathan in the sixth over and he struck with the second ball of his over. He went on to dismiss Patel for 38 and also Albie Morkel, who threatened to speed up the run rate.
Suresh Raina hit a fighting 43 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni through an unbeaten 29 saw his team past the 150-run mark.
Rajasthan got off to a bad start. Opener Niraj Patel got clean bowled by Manpreet Gony for 2. His partner Swapnil Asnodkar too fell at the score of 41. Kamran Akmal was brilliantly run out off a direct hit by Makhaya Ntini from mid on.
Shane Watson and Pathan lifted the team out of trouble. Pathan went on to hit 53 before being run out by Suresh Raina.
From then on it was anybody's game, but Warne and Tanvir held on to their nerves.
SCOREBOARD
Chennai Super Kings:
Parthiv Patel c Kamran Akmal b Pathan 38
Sivaramakrishnan Vidyut c Jadeja b Pathan 16
Suresh Raina c Jadeja b Watson 43
Albie Morkel c Kamran Akmal b Pathan 16
Mahendra Singh Dhoni not out 29
Chamara Kapugedera c Asnodkar b Sohail Tanvir 8
Subramaniam Badrinath not out 6
Extras (b 1, lb 2, w 3, nb 1) 7
Total (for five wickets in 20 overs) 163
Fall of wickets: 1-39 (Vidyut, 5.2 overs), 2-64 (Patel, 8.6), 3-95 (Morkel, 12.4), 4-128 (Raina, 16.2), 5-148 (Kapugedera, 19.1)
Bowling:
Sohail Tanvir 4 0 40 1
Shane Watson 4 0 29 1
Munaf Patel 2 0 14 0
Yususf Pathan 4 0 22 3
Siddharth Trivedi 2 0 21 0
Shane Warne 4 0 34 0
Rajasthan Royals:
Niraj Patel b Gony 2
Swapnil Asnodkar c Raina b Morkel 28
Kamran Akmal run out (Ntini) 6
Shane Watson b Muralitharan 28
Yusuf Pathan run out (Raina) 56
Mohammed Kaif c Dhoni b Muralitharan 12
Ravinder Jadeja c Kapugedera b Morkel 0
Shane Warne not out 9
Sohail Tanvir not out 9
Extras (b 1, lb 6, w 5, nb 2)
Total (for seven wickets in 20 overs) 164
Fall of wickets: 1-19 (Patel, 3.1 overs), 2-41 (Asnodkar, 6.1), 3-42 (Akmal, 6.4), 4-107 (Watson, 14.1), 5-139 (Kaif, 16.6), 6-139 (Jadeja, 17.1), 7-143 (Pathan, 17.4)
Bowling:
Makhaya Ntini 4 1 21 0
Manpreet Gony 4 0 30 1
Albie Morkel 4 0 25 2
Lakshmipathy Balaji 4 0 42 0
Muttiah Muralitharan 4 0 39 2
Toss: Rajasthan Royals, who chose to field
Result: Rajasthan Royals win by three wickets
Man of the Match: Yusuf Pathan (Rajasthan Royals)
Umpires: Billy Bowden (New Zealand) and Rudi Koertzen (South Africa)
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