INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE

Rajasthan Royals romped to a six-wicket win against Kings XI Punjab in the sixth Indian Premier League match (IPL) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Monday. The Royals having lost their first match against Daredevils had to win this one in front of their home crowd to dismiss any tags of them being the weakest team.

Having won the toss Yuvraj elected to bat first hoping to put some runs on the board. Shane Warne would have hoped his side would be boosted with the coming of some Pakistani players who had just finished their 5-0 whitewash of Bangladesh.

The Kings XI got off to a good start scoring briskly before Munaf bowled a brilliant yorker to knock the stumps of Goel. This was just the beginning as the Royals were picking up wickets at regular intervals reducing the host to 73 for 4, with Warne picking 2 and salunke picking 1 wicket.

Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj steadied the ship for the Kings. Had the Royals taken all their catches the knigs would have been in much deeper trouble. But they did not and Yuvi made them pay scoring 57 runs off 34 balls before being dismissed by Warne.

Towards the end of the innings Kings lost a few wickets but a little cameo from Piyush Chawla scoring 24 from just 11 balls saw the visitors end the innings at a respectable 166 for 8 from their allotted 20 overs.

The Royals did not start well loosing 3 wickets with just 48 on the board. But the 2 autralians steady the ship putting on a very important 51 run stand befor Lehman was trapped in front of the stumps of a delivery from Irfan Pathan.

But Ravindra Jadeja and Watson ensured they never lost another wicket and took their team to victory in the 19th over. Watson played a gem of an innings scoring a brilliant 76 off 49 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes helping his side win their first game in the IPL