Rajasthan Royals clinch victory from Deccan Chargers

Port Elizabeth, May 2 (ANI): Rajasthan Royals on Saturday beat Deccan Chargers by three wickets with two balls of the 20 overs remaining to be bowled in a match of the Indian Premier League tournament here .

Deccan, which scored 141 for 5 wickets in 20 overs, had its chances but poor fielding proved too costly for the team.

However, for the Rajasthan Royals, Carseldine, Raut and Pathan played well. Abhishek Raut, who played an anchoring role with an unbeaten 36 off 23 balls, was joined by Shane Harwood in the middle and Dwayne Smith fumbled a run-out chance with 10 needed off 10.

Today's match included the disciplined spells of bowling, followed by some nerveless batting. But it was misfields and dropped catches from Deccan Chargers contributed to the close finish.

Yusuf Pathan, who earned Man of the Match, having starred with the ball early, took Rajasthan Royals to within 11 of victory with two overs to go.

"I enjoyed it well, Carseldine and Raut played well, It was a good wicket to bat and I was able to strike well," Pathan was quoted as saying by Cricinfo.com after the match.

Some anxious moments ensued as Deccan argued that only one of the two runs that Raut and Harwood ran during the run-out attempt could be counted since the umpire had already signalled a referral at the end of the first run.

But the deduction did not amount to much after Rohit Sharma failed to collect a ball and let it go for four instead.

That eased the pressure on Rajasthan, who needed only two off the final over.

Fidel Edwards bowled two dot balls but messed up a possible run-out of the third. Raut and Harwood took two singles to finish the game with two balls to spare.

Rajasthan won the match scoring 142 at the loss of seven wickets in 19.4 overs at a run rate of 7.22 per over.

"A great game of cricket, so exciting, tight finishes, both the teams had the opportunities to win it. There is bit more in the track and they bowled well to restrict us to 141, we would have like some more," said Gilchrist of the Deccan Chargers after the match. (ANI)