IPL 6: RR vs KXIP - Heroes of the Day

Rajasthan Royals continue their daunting record at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur with a victory over KXIP in Match 18 of IPL 6. The bowlers set up the victory by taking regular wickets and restricting the KXIP batsmen to a paltry 124. The RR dug-out witnessed a small hiccup in the middle when Hodge got out, but they approached the target steadily and won the game in the last over with 6 wickets in hand.

Lets have a look at some of the star performers of the day:

S Sreesanth (RR, 4-1-20-2)

Rajasthan Royals bowler Sreesanth in action during the match between Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals Played at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on April 14, 2013.

The mercurial seamer has a knack of making the headlines for all the wrong reasons. His recent Twitter outburst was the perfect fodder for the media recently. But last night, he let his performance do the talking for a change. He picked up the key wicket of Gilchrist and followed it up by Mandeep Singh’s wicket in his very first over. He was largely responsible for pushing the KXIP on the back-foot right from the start – something they couldn’t recover from in their entire innings.

Shane Watson (RR, 32 runs off 19 balls)

That Shane Watson was fit to play the match was enough to find him a spot on this list. He only improved his rating by a brief, yet stellar, batting display. He scored 32 runs coming in to open the batting and hit 9 boundaries in his stay. The initial impetus that he gave to the innings meant that the other batsmen could take their time to chase down the small target.

David Hussey (KXIP, 41 runs off 31 balls)

The most reliable batsman in the line-up was up to the task again. He played responsibly and scored his runs at a quick pace too. He manoeuvred the balls in the gaps and found that occasional boundary too. He could not get much support as he saw wickets tumble at the other end. He, too, finally succumbed to the pressure of improving the run-rate and ended up playing a lofted drive to mid-off.

Ajinkya Rahane (RR, 34 runs off 42 balls)

Rajasthan Royals batsman Ajinkya Rahane in action .

Watson, Rahane, Dravid and Hodge are the pillars of the RR batting. At a time when Watson shone and got out followed by insignificant contributions from Dravid and Hodge, Rahane stood firm and played the role of anchor to perfection. Its rare to find someone scoring 34 runs from 42 balls in the T20 format being honoured as one of the heroes of the game, but the innings, when seen in the context of the run chase, was as crucial as Watson’s. It was primarily because Rahane read the game beautifully and understood his role perfectly. He knew that there are enough good hitters in the side to chase the score and all he needed to do was occupy one end, which he successfully did.

Praveen Kumar (15 runs off 7 balls, 4-1-10-2)

Cricket can sometimes be cruel. One of the cruelties is that even after you bowl a superb spell taking 2 wickets in 4 overs and conceding just 10 runs, you end up in the gloomier of the two camps after the match. To top that, Praveen Kumar even played a little cameo towards the end of the KXIP innings as he hit 2 fours and a six on his way to 15 off 7 balls. But his mindless run-out was representative of a rather unfortunate day for KXIP.