April 28
Place : Cape Town

After the defeat of last year’s runner-up, came the turn of the defending champions to follow suit. Rajasthan Royals faced their worst crush in a match in which they replied to Bangalore Royal Challenger’s 133 runs with a meager 58 for which they were all out. This was the lowest total in an IPL match ever. With the defeat of top two teams it is established that IPL is full of surprises and sharp turns.

BRC went out to bat first. They began on a rather slow note with runs flowing in consistently but not too fast. Loosing wickets was a major issue in the beginning and seemed like a complete collapse when two specialist batsmen- Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor returned for zilch. They had hardly recovered from the early shocks when they found Robin Uthappa (3) back in the stands when the gaudy batsman in attempting a big shot, sneaked out to stumper Mahesh Rawat off Mascarenhas. Skipper Kevin Pietersen (32) was instrumental in showing some resistance and barricaded the fall of wickets for a while.

RR’s Mascarenhas was lethal to the progress of Royal challengers and claimed 3 critical wickets. Bangalore kept up the momentum and Rahul Dravid played a brilliant role in which he knocked 66 for which he was the man-of-the-match. Seeing Dravid on fire was a sight to behold. The sum of their contributions amounted to 133 runs for the loss of eight.

It was now Rajasthan’s turn to beat this. However they found themselves reeling under the bowling attack and lost wickets one after another. Swapnil Asnodkar (0) and the dangerous Greame Smith (2) were sent packing in the initial successive overs. BRC’s Jesse Ryder then took down Niraj Patel (4) and the potentially explosive Tyson Henderson (11) to Bangalore’s delight. Yusuf Pathan then seemed their only hope but was nailed by Kumble for 11 runs. Shane Warne was unable to rescue his stumbling team and he too returned soon.

In the end it was Bangalore who had a shimmering triumph and thrashed the defending champion.