Watson helps Royals in 105 run win over Daredevils; enter IPL final

Mumbai, May 30 (UNI) Shane Watson did the star turn for Rajasthan Royals putting up a brilliant all round performance to continue their dream run as they beat Delhi Daredevils by 105 runs in the first semifinal to romp into the final of the inaugural DLF Indian Premier League at the Wankhede stadium here tonight.

Watson followed up his 29 ball 52 with a superb opening burst of 3 wickets for 10 runs as Delhi Daredevils chasing a huge score of 193 for victory folded up for 87 runs in 16.1 overs as their batsmen were to be blamed for some ordinary shots played in the middle with the pressure of chasing a huge total getting to them..

Delhi Daredevils set a target of 193 to win began their innings with Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. The first over saw the two openers gather 8 runs without much problem and the two looked like getting settled in before going for the big shots.

However, in the second over bowled by Shane Watson, Sehwag got a rush of blood as he tried to pull a short ball from the Australian all rounder, but managed only to loft it into the outfield for Sohail Tanvir to take a good running catch from the square leg fence. Sehwag made just 3 runs with the score being 10 for one.

Watson in his second over once again struck with the big wicket of Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir danced down the track and slapped the ball hard in the air towards point region where Taruwar Kohli, substituting for the injured Graeme Smith, flung himself to the left at point and plucked off a peach of a catch. Gambhir made 11 with Delhi Daredevils on 23 for 2.

Watson continued with his habit of picking up a wicket in each over when in his third over he got Shikhar Dhawan who pulled a slightly short ball straight into the hands of Ravindra Jadeja at midwicket as Delhi slumped to 24 for three.

Soon they were in dire straits when Manoj Tiwary tried to pull Munaf Patel off the front foot though the length was not short enough. The ball hurried on to him as he top-edges between midwicket and mid-on, Asnodkar goes for it from midwicket and nearly collides with Tanvir who came in from mid-on, while holding on to the catch.

Tiwary made 0 as Delhi went into further trouble at 28 for 4.

Tillakratne Dilshan then struck two consecutive boundaries of Munaf Patel and then drove Shane Warne for another boundary as he along with Dinesh Karthik looked like building up a partnership having added 37 runs for the fifth wicket, before Siddharth Trivedi struck with Dinesh Karthik flicking uppishly to the deep midwicket region where Mohd. Kaif came up with a brilliant catch diving forward as Delhi Daredevils plunged further into trouble at 55 for five with Karthik making 10.

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