Rajasthan Royals got back to their winning ways as they beat the Kochi Tuskers in a low-scoring game at Jaipur. The Tuskers were restricted to 109 in their 20 overs in a poor display of cricket in general and the Royals won by eight wickets and with almost six overs to spare. 
There wasn’t too much doubt that the Royals needed to win this game badly to be able to have any chance of remaining in contention for the final four berth. On the other hand, the Kochi Tuskers had had a good chance of making themselves go through to the semi-finals had they won this game – that would have been their fourth win in the competition.
The Tuskers were sent into bat by the Royals and unfortunately for them, nothing went right throughout their innings. VVS Laxman, who had come into the side in place of the injured Brendon McCullum, was run-out off a direct throw from Rahul Dravid, while Mahela Jayawardene’s sweep off the first ball from Johan Botha hit his pad and rolled on to the stumps.
Shane Warne was immediately amongst the wickets when Brad Hodge tried to cut him but only managed to inside-edge the ball on to the stumps and the Tuskers were 42/3 in 7.4 overs.
There was a recovery partnership between Parthiv Patel and Ravindra Jadeja, the two adding 48 for the fourth wicket. Patel scored 32 and Jadeja made 22 and with five overs to play, there was a good chance that the side could get to 130. Instead, Warne came back to have both these players being dismissed in the same over, attempting aggressive strokes.
With the side having lost both their key batsmen, the rest of the team collapsed without troubling the scorers too much as Siddharth Trivedi came back to get three wickets.
110 was never going to be enough a score to defend and the Royals’ opening partnership made sure that they would have no trouble getting there. In fact, it was Rahul Dravid who was more aggressive of the two opening bats and went on to score a 37-ball 44 whereas Watson made 49.
While Dravid was run-out when he attempted a second run, Watson fell with the side needing only five more – bowled off Jadeja. Warne’s 3/16 won him the man of the match award.
The Royals went up to seven points from seven games after this game while Tuskers have six from six.