Sport - Cricket

Pathan stars for Royals

Jaipur: Batting with gusto, Yusuf Pathan secured Rajasthan Royals its sixth win in the IPL. Graeme Smith seemed glad to play the supporting role as Pathan went about his business smashing fours and sixes.

The men in royal blue have evidently found the conditions at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium quite to their favour, and it was no different on Friday. Its home record has been without a blemish so far.

The home team lost the openers, but yet it crossed the finishing line with plenty of overs to spare and notched up its second win over Deccan Chargers. Indications are that the Hyderabad team will struggle to stage a comeback.

Once the opponent had been restricted to 140, Pathan and Smith completed the job on hand untroubled.

Shane Warne made a smart move in choosing to open with the aggressive Pathan (61, 9x4, 2x6). Winning the match was a mere formality once Pathan and Smith had raised 109.

The scores: Deccan Chargers: 140 for eight in 20 overs.

Rajasthan Royals: G. Smith c Ojha b R.P. Singh 40, Y. Pathan c Gibbs b Ojha 68, M. Kaif (not out) 17, S. Watson (not out) 5; Extras (b-1, w-10): 11; Total (for two wkts. in 16 overs) 141.

Fall of wickets: 1-109, 2-133.

Deccan Chargers b owling: Vijaykumar 1-0-10-0, R.P. Singh 4-0-24-1, Styris 2-0-14-0, Ojha 4-0-47-1, Afridi 2-0-10-0, Bangar 2-0-20-0, Rao 1-0-15-0.

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