Yusuf Pathan powers Rajasthan Royals win against Delhi Daredevils

Yusuf Pathan helped Rajasthan Royals win the match again. Pathan played a brutal innings scoring 61 runs in just balls against Delhi Daredevils. Going into the match unbeaten in the IPL 2009 so far, Virendar Sehwag won the toss and chose to bat first. He started off well by hitting a six on his very first ball, but the party didn't last long. He attempted another shot later and got out to Mascarenhas. AB de Villiers played responsibly hitting the old balls to boundaries. Daniel Vettori provided a good support to him and Delhi Daredevils scored 143 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in their alloted 20 overs.

Though 144 is a chasable target in this format of the game, Rajasthan Royals lost to Punjab Kings XI the other day for a similar target. Rajasthan Royals opted to send Graeme Smith and Quiney to open the innings. Rajasthan Royals lost a couple of wickets playing some risky shots and Shane Warne immediately put his brain into action shuffling the batting order. Rohan Jadeja and Shane Warne came up in the batting order ahead of Yusuf Pathan and this proved to be a good decision at the end. They lost 5 wickets for 64 runs, 80 runs short of target. With run rate nearing 10 an over, Yusuf Pathan played some big shots and Grame Smith performed his role to support Yusuf at the other end. Pathan scored 64 runs in just 30 balls and won the match for the Royals yet again.

Delhi Daredevils: 143/7 (20 overs)
AB de Villiers 50(40, Daniel Vettori 29(28)
Munaf Path 2/14, Mascarenhas 2/28, Shane Warne 2/32

Rajasthan Royals: 147/5 (18.3 overs)
Yusuf Pathan 62*(30), Graeme Smith 44(46)
Amit Misra 3/34

Result: Rajasthan Royals beat Delhi Daredevils by 5 wickets