Royals thrash Super Kings by 8 wickets
Riding on a sensational best ever bowling spell of Twenty20 cricket by Pakistani left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir (6/14), Rajasthan Royals cantered to an easy eight wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings in an Indian Premier League match here Sunday.
After Tanvir's unbelievable 4-0-14-6 rocked the Super Kings innings to skittle them out for a paltry 109 after visiting team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni elected to bat first, Rajasthan Royals were never in trouble and they romped home with 34 balls to spare.
Set 110 for a win, home team openers Graeme Smith (35 not out; 44 balls, 4x4) and Swapnil Asnodkar (32; 30 balls, 5x4) put on 78 runs for the first wicket to set up the win and place his team on top of the table.
Smith hit the winning runs off Muttiah Muralitharan for a two to bring up 110 for the home side's fifth win on the trot and hand Dhoni's team second consecutive loss after four consecutive victories.
For Super Kings, S Vidyut and Muttiah Muralitharan claimed a wicket apiece conceding 22 and 20 runs respectively.
Earlier, a sensational bowling spell of 6/14 by left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir helped Rajasthan Royals skittle Chennai Super Kings for a paltry 109.
Tanvir's unbelievable 4-0-14-6 was the first five-wicket haul and also the best figure of the IPL so far.
He was ably supported by Munaf Patel (2/16), Shane Watson (1/19) and captain Shane Warne (1/29) in completely destroying the Super Kings batsmen.
Tanvir started on a sensational note removing Parthiv Patel (0) LBW from his first ball with the visiting opener plumbed in front of wicket.
The Pakistani pacer then castled New Zealander Stephen Fleming for a duck for another LBW verdict to send both the Super Kings opener back to the hut in the very first over of their innings with scoreboard reading 1 for two.
Tanvir did not stop there and he had S Vidyut in the third over caught out Shane watson for five to send the visitors reeling at 11 for three and end his own opening spell of two overs with an unbelievable 2-0-2-3.
He returned for the second spell in the 17th over from the first ball of which he sent Super Kings top scorer Albie Morkel' (42) stumps cart-wheeling to end a 44-run sixth wicket stand - highest for the Chennai side - with Raina (27).
Tanvir then clean-bowled Muttiah Muralitharan for a duck in the same over before claiming the last Chennai batsman Makhaya Ntini (11) to finish off the visitors' innings in style in the 19th over.
S Badrinath (15) and Raina, for a brief period, looked like to repair the early damage for the Chennai side with a fourth-wicket stand of 27 but Tanvir's new ball partner Shane Watson cut it short when he had Badrinath caught off his own bowling.
Home team captain Shane Warne also tasted success after introducing himself in the eighth over and won the battle against his opposite number Mahendra Singh Dhoni who perished for one after surviving two viciously turning balls off the retired Australian great.
By the time Dhoni was out after facing seven balls, half of his side's batsmen had returned to the pavilion for a mere 44 runs in the eighth over.
The visitors crawled to 58 for five at the end of 10th over and Munaf Patel emulated his team-mate Tanvir by removing Raina and Joginder Sharma (0) in a span of four balls in the 15th over to send the visitors to their knees.
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