Former Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Rajasthan Royals, who were deep in controversy in the last edition of the IPL, stormed into the semi-finals of the Champions League at home last night.
Skipper Rahul Dravid appeared over the moon with the kind of cricket his team played. “It was a really good and clinical performance today. We can always improve and we can keep getting better, we also take a lot of satisfaction from the match today.
Royals skipper Rahul Dravid (right) congratulates Kevon Cooper after a Perth Scorchers wicket
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Our bowlers pulled it back brilliantly today, like Jimmy (James Faulkner) Coops (Kevon Cooper) and a lot of professionalism from Samson (Sanju) and Rahaneu00a0(Ajinkya) who batted very well.
“Our next game is a big one and Otago is playing very good cricket, they are the team in form,” said Dravid. The captain chose to bowl first and his decision paid rich dividends as Perth Scorchers were bowled out for 120 in exactly 20 overs. Pacer Cooper returned with a four-wicket haul as the hosts thrived in home conditions at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
That was before Rahane (62) and young Samson (50) stitched together a 120-run partnership for the second wicket to see Rajasthan home with nine wickets and 21 balls to spare.
Dravid was bowled by Jason Behrendorff for a duck in the fourth ball of the innings. Rajasthan with 12 points from three matches, will play their last league match on Tuesday against Otago at Jaipur. The New Zealand side are second with 10 points in three games. Mumbai Indians are in the reckoning as well with six points in three matches.
Man of the match Cooper said at the presentation: “I’m happy to come out here and bowl well and give my team a chance of winning. The yorker is something I practice e a lot, it’s very important in this format. We wanted to play good cricket here and happy tou00a0do that.
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