Rahane Stunning Rajasthan wins the match

 

Rahane's 98 take Rajasthan to 191-4. Ajinkya Rahane’s free-flowing 98 follow by Kevon Cooper’s dream introduction in the IPL helped Rajasthan succeed a largely 1-sided home game against Kings XI Punjab loss by 31 runs.

After being inserting by Gilchrist, Rajasthan Royals controlled the game from the opening under their new captain Rahul Dravid. Rahane targeted the directly field and extra cover with striking regularity for his fours, striking 16 fours and one six in his 66-ball knock as Rajasthan piled 191-4.

Kings XI Punjab pacer James Faulkner dismisses him in the penultimate over as he try to bring up his 100 with a blow through extra cover. Ajinkya Rahane was aid good by his captain Dravid in a 77-run opening partnership. Cooper, who plays for Trinidad & Tobago and is yet to create his debut for the West Indies, made a moment impression on his IPL debut. Facing Faulkner, he cut his 1st ball for a massive 6 over point; follow that up with an edge past the wicketkeeper for 4.

The evening continued to grow attractive for Cooper. He takes an easy catch at mid-off to send away Gilchrist. He followed that up with a wicket each in his 1st 3 overs to dismiss Paul Valthaty, Shaun Marsh and Abhishek Nayar. Cooper’s 3 overs ended the match, with the best of Punjab’s batting gone. Cooper follows this up with D Hussey’s catch in the deep and Piyush Chawla’s wicket to complete a 4-for.

Having had a hand in 6 of the 8 dismissals in the Punjab innings, Cooper then run out Praveen Kumar with a flat throw to the wicketkeeper all the way back from long-on to cover up an hard to believe debut.

Man of the match

Ajinkya Rahane

Today Match

Team:
RCB v Daredevils (16:00 local | 10:30 GMT)

Place:
M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore

Team:
Chargers v Super Kings (20:00 local | 14:30 GMT)

Place:
Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam