Smith, Sharma star in Deccan victory

Dwayne Smith smashed a brisk 47 and Rohit Sharma grabbed three quick wickets as Deccan Chargers thrashed Rajasthan Royals by 53 runs in an Indian Premier League match here on Monday.
Deccan rode on West Indian Smith's 32-ball knock to post 166-7 before restricting Rajasthan to 113 for their sixth win in 10 matches. Rajasthan have so far won five of their 11 games.
Delhi lead the eight-team competition with 14 points from nine matches, followed by Chennai (13/10), Deccan (12/10), Rajasthan (11/11), Punjab (10/10), Mumbai (9/10), Bangalore (8/10) and Kolkata (3/10).
Defending champions Rajasthan faltered against the pace-spin combination, with opener Swapnil Asnodkar alone offering resistance with a 39-ball 44.
Veteran Sri Lankan seamer Chaminda Vaas (2-19) did the early damage with two wickets in a lively opening spell to reduce Rajasthan to 19-2.
The left-arm paceman trapped South Africa skipper Graeme Smith (one) leg-before and then had Australian Lee Carseldine (eight) stumped by Adam Gilchrist.
Off-spinner Sharma ensured an easy win with three wickets for just 12 runs off three tight overs.
Deccan earlier plundered 58 runs in the last five overs, thanks to man-of-the-match Smith who smashed four sixes in a superb exhibition of hard and clean hitting.
Spinners Yusuf Pathan (3-34) and Ravinder Jadeja (2-26) threatened to restrict Deccan to a modest total before Smith propped up the innings with a 37-run stand for the fifth wicket with Vaas (20).
Off-spinner Pathan struck with his third delivery when he trapped Gilchrist (10) leg-before and then accounted for Vaas and Smith.
Left-arm spinner Jadeja also kept pressure on the batsmen and got a big wicket when he bowled Andrew Symonds, who hit a 19-ball 30.

Delhi crush Kolkata and regain top spot

The Delhi Daredevils bowlers paved the way for a seven-wicket Indian Premier League thumping of strugglers Kolkata Knight Riders Sunday as they reclaimed top spot in the table.
Kolkata were restricted to 123-8 at chilly Wanderers after they lost the toss and were sent in to bat and Delhi cruised home, reaching 125-3 with 17 balls to spare.
Openers David Warner, who made 36 off 23 balls, and 18-run Gautam Gambhir got Delhi off to a good start in the chase with a 53-run first-wicket partnership.
While Gambhir, Warner and Tillakaratne Dilshan were removed within three overs, South African AB de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik combined to carry them home.
The pair put on an unbroken 56 runs for the fourth wicket with De Villiers making 40 from 32 deliveries and Karthik contributing 17.
Earlier, Ashish Nehra had struck twice in Kolkata?s first over, and in the second Australian Dirk Nannes removed South African Morne van Wyk to leave them struggling at 9-3.
Opener Sourav Ganguly and Yashpal Singh forged a 36-run partnership for the fourth wicket, but Amit Mishra sent Singh packing in the eighth over and three balls later added the wicket of Wriddhiman Saha to break Kolkata?s momentum.
Ganguly, who made 44 runs off 45 balls, stuck around to anchor the innings, but was removed by Nannes in the 17th over.
Ajit Agarkar, dropped by Rajat Ghatia off his own bowling on 21, contributed 39 off 29 deliveries.
He was removed with the last ball of the innings after sharing a stubborn 40-run stand with Murali Kartik.
Mishra was the pick of the Delhi attack, returning 3-14 while Nannes and Nehra claimed two wickets each.

Duminy, Rahane keep Mumbai afloat in IPL

Mumbai Indians rode on a record stand by Jean-Paul Duminy and Ajinkya Rahane to beat Bangalore Royal Challengers by 16 runs in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.
The duo put on 104 off 72 balls, the highest third-wicket partnership in the IPL, as Mumbai scored 157-2 in 20 overs before restricting Bangalore to 141-7 at St George's Park here.
Mumbai's fourth win in 10 matches took them to nine points and kept their hopes alive of making the semi-finals. Bangalore were stuck on eight points from 10 games.
Both teams have four more league matches to play.
Rahane and Duminy came to the crease after skipper Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed for zero in the second over and Sri Lankan veteran Sanath Jayasuriya fell for 29 in the eighth.
Rahane, a 20-year-old from Mumbai, remained unbeaten on 62 off 49 balls with four boundaries and a six.
Duminy, the left-handed South African, made 59 not out off 41 balls, a knock that was studded with three sixes and two fours.
Bangalore's challenge faded after four wickets fell for 58 by the 10th over, including those of Jacques Kallis (12) and Rahul Dravid (10).
South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher smashed an unbeaten 48 off 33 balls, but his gallant effort was not enough for Bangalore to snatch an unlikely win.
India spinner Harbhajan Singh was Mumbai's star bowler with two wickets for 15 runs in his four overs.

Chennai prevail in high-scoring affair

Following a thumping win against the Deccans, A confident Chennai captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. The were two changes in the Superkings team - George Bailey and Manpreet Gony replaced Murali Vijay and Jacob Oram. Punjab had one change in their eleven - VRV Singh came in for Ramesh Powar.

Chennai had a change in the batting line-up. With Murali Vijay not playing, Hayden was accompanied by Badrinath at the opening slot. However, the new combination did not work for Chennai when Badrinath tried to upper-cut an Irfan Pathan delivery but was caught by VRV Singh. Raina joined Hayden at number three and the duo started off a show of brilliant stroke-play. Though the conditions were overcast, it did not deter Raina and Hayden, who took an attacking approach and decimated the Punjab bowling. Chennai were 68/1 after 7.3 overs when the rain gods came to the help of Punjab by halting the play.

The play resumed after the rain delay with the match being reduced to 18 overs a side. Punjab got their first break-through after the delay when Raina attempted a pull off Chawla but could only find Goel latch on to a catch. The captain MS Dhoni once again promoted himself and came in at number four. He looked in good touch, timing the ball sweetly. Meanwhile, Matthew Hayden continued from where he left off and went on to score his fifty.

MS Dhoni opened up towards the end of the innings, scoring at an express rate. VRV Singh was at the receiving end when Dhoni scored 24 runs in his over which inculded 2 fours and 2 sixers. Hayden went one step further, scoring 3 sixers off Sreesanth in the penultimate over.

The duo brought on the 100 partnership off just 46 balls. However, Hayden departed in the same over, holing out to Jayawardene at long-in. The hard hitting Hayden managed to score 89 runs off just 58 balls. His innings included 8 fours and 6 sixers. Meanwhile, Dhoni reached his fifty with a four in the last over, taking just 24 balls to get there. Chennai ended the innings with a mammoth score of 185 on board. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 56 off just 27 balls. His innings included 7 fours and 2 sixers.

Punjab started the innings requiring 188 runs to win as per Duckworth and Lewis. Punjab's uphill task started off on a wrong note when Sunny Sohal was bowled by Morkel in the first over. Meanwhile, Simon Katich took charge, scoring at quick rate. Karan Goel gave him good company at the other end, playing for singles and rotating the strike. Simon Katich took the fight back to Chennai scoring 3 consecutive sixers off Gony. Karan Goel tried to emulate Katich by trying to hit Jakati over the top. However, he holed out to Gony at long-on, bringing Yuvraj Singh to the crease. The Kings XI captain started positively, dealing in boundaries and sixers. Not to be left behind, Katich played at a brisk pace and reached his fifty off just 24 balls. Just when things were looking good for Punjab, a loose ball from Balaji resulted in the dismissal of Katich. At this stage Punjab were 84/3 requiring 104 runs off 53 balls.

Yuvraj survived a chance in the 11th over when his attempted shot over long-on, off Muralitharan's bowling was put down by Gony. Meanwhile, an in-form Jayawardene was striking boundaries and sixers at will, taking the attack to his Sri Lankan counterpart, Muralitharan. Yuvraj Singh made Chennai pay for the dropped catch, decimating the Chennai bowling attack. With 3 overs remaining, Punjab required 39 runs to win. Leading from the front, Yuvraj Singh brought up his fifty in just 28 balls.

An exciting finish was in place when Punjab required 30 runs off the last two overs with Yuvraj and Jayawardene putting up the fight. Suresh Raina was given the ball for the penultimate over and he just gave away 6 runs. Punjab required 24 runs off the last over. Balaji, who was chosen to bowl the last over, kept his cool and bowled consistently in the block hole, giving away just 12 runs in the over. In the end, Chennai emerged victors by 12 runs.

In a closely fought encounter, Chennai held their cool and ultimately ended on the winning side thanks to the batting efforts of Hayden, Dhoni and Raina. Punjab gave Chennai a good fight but were not good enough at the end.

Rajasthan cruise to victory

There were a lot of similarities in the two teams that took to the field today, apart from the obvious one of both having 'Royal' in their team name. They had both had fitful starts to the tournament, but were coming into the match having built up great momentum, and both were led by leg-spinning legends of the game who were contemporaries.

Anil Kumble lost the toss to Warne, who decided to bowl first on a fresh pitch. Bangalore went in with an unchanged side, while Rajasthan brought in Munaf Patel and local boy Morne Morkel instead of Siddharth Trivedi and Shane Harwood.

The impressive Amit Singh again provided the breakthrough for Rajasthan when he had Wasim Jaffer caught with Lee Carseldine taking a well judged catch at short cover. Last match hero Jacques Kallis couldn't repeat his batting performance and fell to Munaf Patel in the fifth over, leaving Bangalore in a bit of a hole, with the run-rate below 5 and two wickets down. They were dealt a body blow when they lost returning hero Rahul Dravid for a duck. Dravid got a ball down the leg-side and uncharacteristically, instead of tickling it fine for a boundary, got a feather-touch through to the keeper, giving Lee Carseldine a big wicket in his debut over. Bangalore slid further, losing Robin Uthappa plumb lbw to part-time spinner Jadeja, and only a dropped chance by 'keeper Ojha off Warne kept Virat Kohli at the crease and prevented Bangalore from losing half the side before half the overs were up. As it was, they were a none-too-healthy 49 for 4 at the halfway mark, and true to form, they lost a wicket immediately after, when Boucher was bowled by Jadeja.

Jadeja continued to have a dream spell with the ball and snaffled Virat Kohli who's cut only succeeded in finding the safe hands of a tumbling Morne Morkel.

Amit Singh then bowled a beautiful slower delivery - an off-cutter who's turn would have done Murali proud - to bowl the dangerous van der Merwe.

An excellent all-round bowling display meant Rajasthan got Bangalore all out for 105 off the last ball of the innings, with Amit Singh returning figures of 4-0-19-4 and Ravindra Jadeja having 4-0-15-3.

In an innings that lay in shambles from start to finish, the most exciting moment came when No.10 Vinay Kumar attempted a switch hit - you read that right, a switch hit - off Amit Singh in the last over of the innings.

Rajasthan's chase got off to a sedate start, but with no requirement to go slam bang, Smith and Ojha could afford to take their time to settle in. Just when he looked about to explode though, Smith was castled by South African team-mate Kallis.

Rajasthan kept ticking the runs off though, and even though Lee Carseldine was run-out in a bad mix-up with Naman Ojha, the score progressed at above the required rate, reading a comfortable 62 for 2 at the strategy break, with Yusuf Pathan at the crease.

Bangalore did manage to get Yusuf out, it was too little too late, as by then Rajasthan needed just 15 runs to win and had 6 overs and 7 wickets in hand to get them.

This they duly did, with Naman Ojha scoring another fifty and remaining unbeaten on 52 not out off 37 balls, to give Rajasthan victory by 7 wickets and 5 overs to spare.

At the end of the match, another similarity had emerged between the two teams - both stayed true to the form they had displayed in IPL '08!

Turning Point of the Match: A thoroughly professional display by Rajasthan ensured that they had their second successive one-sided victory, with possibly the only turning point being the fact that the toss landed in Warne's favour rather than Kumble's!

Man of the Match: Amit Singh for his sterling bowling performance in just his second IPL match, which really set up the victory for Rajasthan by putting Bangalore on the back-foot from the start.

Hope Dhoni was watching me perform: Rohit

Deccan Chargers' Rohit Sharma hopes the hat-trick against Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League was watched by India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as he attempts to cement his place in the one-day squad. Despite the bundle of talent, Rohit has been in and out of the one-day squad but feels yesterday's performance would serve as a message to the India think tank. "I hope he (Dhoni) watched the game... Maybe... yes... he may have," Rohit said. His hat-trick was spread over two overs with scalps of Abhishek Nayar, Harbhajan Singh and JP Duminy and Rohit said he was taking his off-spin seriously. "I am a good bowler and have been working hard at my bowling. I didn't get enough opportunities at international level. I have been bowling well in whatever opportunities I have been getting. I am happy that I came out with a hat-trick," Rohit told IPL's official website. The 22-year-old Mumbai Ranji player was quite surprised that he got the hat-trick, the second of the ongoing IPL after Yuvraj Singh's feat, and considered himself lucky. "I never thought so, to be honest. I was lucky to get a hat-trick. I never thought I would get wickets, so let alone get a hat-trick. So quite surprising actually," said Rohit. Since his was a split hat-trick, Rohit was confused of at first and it needed Ryan Harris to inform him about his feat. "I started running all over the ground and I enjoyed it." After yesterday's bowling performance, Rohit feels he could now be called an all-rounder. "I think so maybe, you can call me that now."

Gambhir half century takes Delhi to the top

A half-century from stand-in skipper Gautam Gambhir led Delhi Daredevils to the top of the Indian Premier League table with a nine-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday.
Gambhir's measured innings of 71 not out eased Delhi to their target of 155 with one over to spare, although he did enjoy some luck after being dropped by Kolkata captain Brendon McCullum on 21 and was given not out after being caught behind just short of his half-century.
David Warner's quickfire innings of 36 from 23 deliveries got the Daredevils off to a flying start and eased the pressure on his team-mates, allowing Gambhir and Tillakaratne Dilshan (42 not out) to ride home.
Gambhir has struggled for IPL form, but was pleased to finally register a good innings.
"I am not spotting the ball well, but was happy I batted through," he said. "We discussed that someone had to finish the job, and with two batsmen set we managed to do that."
It was Kolkata's seventh loss from nine matches, and they rued some poor fielding with a number of dropped catches and unnecessary boundaries after their batsmen set a reasonable total.
McCullum finally found form to record a speedy 35, but it was fellow opener Morne van Wyk who really sparkled with 74 from just 48 balls.
The South African hit 11 fours, but was at times starved of the strike by a struggling middle order as the innings tailed away and ended with a total that was a shade under par.
"I thought probably another 20 on top would have been good, but the way they chased them down was thoroughly professional," conceded McCullum.
Defeat leaves Kolkata rooted to the bottom of the table with just three points.