Royals pile up 201 for six against lacklustre Daredevils

Ajinkya Rahane once again anchored the innings to perfection while Sanju Samson played another flamboyant knock as Rajasthan Royals piled up season's highest score of 201 for six against a listless Delhi Daredevils in an IPL encounter here today.
Put into bat, Rahane scored a stylish 64 off 50 balls while Samson smashed his way to 40 off only 25 deliveries.
The duo punished the opposition scoring as many as 74 runs in 6.3 overs for the third wicket partnership.
While Rahane mostly played othodox cricketing shots hitting eight boundaries and a six in the process, Samson indulged in some adventurous strokeplay hitting two fours and three sixes. Kevon Cooper's 16-ball-32 and James Faulkner's 23 off seven deliveries were also vital in the context of the big total that the 'Blues' put up.

Rahane's 50 came off 45 balls and his only six came when a desperate Shahbaz Nadeem tried to employ a negative leg-stump line only to give him a juicy full-toss.
When he was finally bowled trying to hit Nadeem inside out, he had set the pace of the Royals innings.

For Daredevils, Imran Tahir (2/25) stood tall amidst some of the others while Rahul Shukla leaking as many as 44 in four overs.
In-form Karun Nair (19) started positively as he lofted Siddharth Kaul over extra cover for a six and boundary but was out in the last over of Powerplay when he was done in by a Nadeem delivery that dipped in and straightened. He was adjudged leg-before.

While Rahane punished the loose deliveries, Cooper played a short but exciting innings that lasted only 16 balls but yielded 32 runs including three huge sixes and a couple of boundaries before he was holed at the deep extra cover boundary trying to hit Duminy for a second six.
The 100 came in the 12th over of the innings bowled by Manoj Tiwary. Samson started his innings with a straight six hit into the sightscreen of occasional leg-breaks bowled by Tiwary.
Kaul was one bowler who didn't learn anything from his mistakes as he repeatedly bowled the length deliveries which was dispatched over the ropes. There was very little variation in his deliveries as he was easily sorted by the batsmen.

When Kaul hit one back of the length, Samson played a smashing flat-batted shot.
The other inexperienced bowler was Rahul Shukla also didn't improve from his erratic bowling against the RCB where Yuvraj Singh pounced on him. He did not show any inclination in using the change-ups and the batsmen used his pace to get boundaries off him repeatedly.