Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals (17th April 2010)

Result: Kolkata Knight Riders won by 8 wkts

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bat first and scored 132/9 in 20 overs. Shane Watson was the top scorer of 44 from Royals. KKR started the chase with a must need win with high net run rate lost wicket of Gayle and McCullum in one over. Ganguly played a patience innings of 75 and well supported 45 from Cheteshwar Pujara helped to win the match in 17th overs. Now RR is the second team out from IPL3 while KKR need some luck and result from other matches to have a berth in semis.

Unadkat wss the Man of the Match for his fine bowling performance. Ganguly got the 'Kamaal catch' and the 'maximum sixes' award.

Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (14th April 2010)

Result: Royal Challengers Bangalore by 5 wkts

Rajasthan Royals have won the toss and elected to bat first. But the top order failed again due to tidy bowling from RCB and scored 130/6 in 20 overs. RCB lost the wicket of Kallis early but a fine knock of 62 from Kevin Pietersen helped them to win the match, a step closer towards the semis berth.

Kevin Pietersen was the Man of the Match also won the Kamaal catch award and the maximum sixes award.


Numbers that mattered, Match 49

2 Rajasthan Royals have now suffered defeats in back-to-back games at Jaipur, after 8 consecutive wins.

7 Number of bowlers to bowl a maiden-over in this IPL. Pankaj Singh joined the selected band of Chaminda Vaas (2 maidens), Doug Bollinger, Harbhajhan Singh, Albie Morkel, Shadab Jakati and Zaheer Khan.

8 Yusuf Pathan became eighth batsman to aggregate 1,000 runs in IPL matches.

20 Number of run-outs conceded by Rajasthan – most by any side in this IPL.

25 Number of sixes hit by Robin Uthappa in the match- most by any batsman in this IPL. Uthappa moved ahead of Rajasthan’s Yusuf Pathan (24).

58 Runs added by Adam Voges and Abhishek Raut for the unbroken seventh wicket partnership – highest in this IPL.

Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai Indians (11th April 2010)

Result: Mumbai Indians won by 37 runs

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to field first. Tendulkar played another master innings with Duminy and Pollard to score 174/5 in 20 overs. Royal lost wickets early while chasing the target. Run outs became crucial for them and tidy bowling from MI bowlers restricted them into 137, resulting first defeat for RR in their home ground. Mummbai Indians is the first team to qualify for semifinals in IPL3.

Sachin Tendulkar was the Man of the Match for scoring 89 off just 59 balls that included 10 fours and 2 sixes also won the maximum sixes award. Kamaal catch award went to JP Duminy.


Numbers that mattered, Match 45

1 Rajasthan Royals suffered their first defeat at Jaipur in 9 matches.

4 Number of man of the match awards won by Sachin Tendulkar in this IPL edition – most by any batsman. He was earlier level with Jacques Kallis with three awards.

19 Run-outs suffered by Rajasthan Royals in this edition – most for any side.

89 Tendulkar’s score is his highest in Twenty20 cricket.

512 Sachin Tendulkar’s run-aggregate at the end of this match – highest for any batsman in this edition. Tendulkar went ahead of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Jacques Kallis’ tally of 501 runs.

1064 Sachin Tendulkar’s run-aggregate in all IPL matches – fourth highest by any batsman after Adam Gilchrist, Suresh Raina and Matthew Hayden.

Rajasthan Royals vs King XI Punjab (7th April 2010)

Result: Rajasthan Royals won by 9 wkts

Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to bat and scored 153/6. Mahela Jayawardene was top scorer with 44 runs. RR started the chase in a hurry. Lumb scored 83 in 43 balls. Naman Ojha played a nice innings of 44 with well support from Yusuf Pathan and chased the target in 15 overs just losing one wicket.

Michael Lumb was the Man of the Match, Kamaal catch award went to 'Piyush Chawla' while Maximum sixes award went to 'Yuvraj Singh'.


Numbers that mattered, Match 38

0  Number of boundaries hit by Punjab batsmen after 15th over. This provided the first instance of a side not hitting a single boundary in last 5 overs in IPL 2010.

3.5   Overs taken by Rajasthan to score the fifty- fastest fifty by any side in IPL 2010. The previous fastest was in 4.1 overs for Delhi v Bangalore at Bangalore on March 25.

8  Rajasthan have now won all 8 matches they have played at Jaipur.

8  Yusuf Pathan held his 8th catch to become the leading fielder in the tournament, moving ahead of Suresh Raina and David Warner.

8.3  Overs taken by Rajasthan to race to their hundred – fastest 100 for any side in IPL 2010. Mumbai held the previous record as they took 9 overs to score their 100 against Delhi at Delhi on March 17.

9 The victory margin of 9 wickets is the largest for Rajasthan in IPL. They had registered a 8-wicket win on three occasions.

16  Number of fours hit by Michael Lumb – most by any batsman in an innings in IPL history. The previous record was held by Punjab’s Mahela Jayawardene with 14 fours against Kolkata at Kolkata on April 4, 2010.

27  Runs scored by Punjab between 16th and 20th overs. This equals the worst performance by any side in last 5 overs in IPL 2010. Chennnai had also scored only 27 runs against Punjab at Chennai on March 21.

109  Runs added by Michael Lumb and Naman Ojha for the first wicket – Rajasthan’s highest partnership for any wicket in IPL 2010.

Deccan Chargers vs Rajasthan Royals (5th April 2010)

Result: Rajasthan Royals won by 2 runs

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bat  first. Watson top scored with 58 in RR's innings helping them put score a decent total of 159. Chargers started well in chasing but lost wickets in regular intervals. Warne bowled a supeb spell to create pressure on Chargers.  Rohit Sharma scored 73 and was the last man to out in the crucial last over giving a Royal a much needed victory.

Shane Warne was declared as the Man of the Match for superb spell of bowling, claiming 4 wickets for 21 runs only.


Numbers that mattered, Match 36

2 Victory margin for Rajasthan Royals – the narrowest in IPL 2010 and fourth narrowest in all IPL matches.

4 for 21 – Shane Warne’s figures in the match – his best in Twenty20s. This was also the best by any spinner in this edition and second best by any captain in all IPL matches, after Anil Kumble’s 4 for 16 also against Deccan at Johannesburg in 2009.

10 out of 10 times Rajasthan Royals have successfully defended a target of 150 or more!

13 Nagpur’s VCA Stadium became the 13th Indian ground to host an IPL match. Interestingly Deccan Chargers have played their “home” matches at three grounds this season – at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, Barabati Stadium in Cuttack….and now VCA Stadium in Nagpur.

14 Number of sixes conceded by Pragyan Ojha in IPL 2010- most by any bowler. He was earlier at level with Sumit Narwal with 13 sixes.

43 Number of sixes Shane Warne has conceded off his bowling in IPL – most for any bowler. He was earlier at level with Punjab’s Piyush Chawla with 42 sixes.

61 Number of sixes hit by Adam Gilchrist in IPL – most by any batsman. Gilchrist was earlier at level with Yusuf Pathan with 58 sixes

1024 Rohit Sharma’s tally of runs in IPL. He became the fourth batsman to aggregate 1,000 runs in IPL after Adam Gilchrist, Suresh Raina and Matthew Hayden.