Rajasthan beat Kings XI Punjab by 31 runs

Ajinkya Rahane smashed a blistering 98 and helped Rajasthan Royals score a convincing 31-run victory over Kings XI Punjab in their opening match of the IPL season five. Rahane turned out to be the cynosure of all eyes at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here, scoring his 98 runs off just 66 balls with the help of 16 boundaries and a lone six. Chasing a mammoth target of 192 for victory, Punjab lost wickets at regular intervals and finished at 160 for nine in their allotted 20 overs. Mandeep Singh, who scored 34 off 25 balls, was the top scorer. West Indies player Kevon Cooper had an impressive game, picking up four wickets for 25 runs from his four overs. Ankeet Chavan bagged two wickets, while Siddharth Trivedi and Amit Singh took one each. Earlier, just when Rahane was set for the first century of IPL V, he was bowled by James Faulkner (2/41) in the final over of the innings two runs short of the magical three-figure mark. Put into bat, captain Rahul Dravid (28 off 24) and Rahane gave a flying start to Rajasthan’s innings, sharing 77 runs for the opening stand that came off just 57 balls. After a quiet first over, Rahane broke the shakles with two consecutive boundaries off Faulkner in the next. Rahane then clobbered Praveen Kumar for four fours to pick up 16 runs of the bowler’s second over. Dravid, on the other hand, played sensibly with ones and twos but hit boundaries when opportunities came his way. After toiling hard for 9.3 overs, Kings XI finally managed to get the breakthrough when Dravid was dimissed by Harmeet Singh (1/23), caught by Faulkner at the cover boundary as he tried to slap one over the in-field. Rahane soon brought up his fifty in style off just 37 balls, hitting Piyush Chawla (1/33) straight over his head in the 10th over. The visitors, however, tasted another success in the same over when Ashok Maneria was castled by Chawla for a duck.