Dravid, Rahane, Binny help Rajasthan beat PWI

See the detailed scorecard HERE Toss: Pune won the toss and elected to bat first. Squads: RR XI: S Watson, A Rahane, S Samson, R Dravid, B Hodge, S Baby, S Binny, K Cooper, J Faulkner, A Chandila, S Trivedi PWI XI: R Uthappa, A Finch, U Birla, Y Singh, M Marsh, A Mathews, M Rawat, W Parnell, B Kumar, K Upadhyay, R Sharma Pune Warriors 178/4 (20 overs) Pune did everything right. They got a good opening partnership going – Finch (45 off 32 balls) and Uthappa (54 off 41) put on 97 for the first wicket in 10.5 overs. The other batsmen didn’t let the run-rate drop and Mitch Marsh gave them a good finish too by making 35 off 21 balls. But one still got the feeling that PWI didn’t get as many as they should have considering their start. Things never quite went mad as we’ve seen it happen so many times in IPL 6. [caption id=“attachment_753829” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rahane was in superb touch for RR. BCCI[/caption] Rajasthan Royals 182/5 (19.5 overs) Rajasthan made it look easy. If PWI had a good opening partnership, then RR matched them shot for shot through Rahul Dravid (58 off 40 balls) and Ajinkya Rahane (67 off 48 balls). The duo put on 98 and RR didn’t put a foot wrong in the chase. They needed Stuart Binny (32 off 13 balls) to get them past the finish line but the result somehow, never seemed to be in doubt. Turning point: Dravid’s decision to open the innings. Many thought that given the target, Shane Watson would be the man to lead RR to glory. But Dravid came out and played classical shots to take his team to a vital win. Man of the match: Ajinkya Rahane. In light of the spot-fixing investigation into the three RR players, here is how ESPNcricinfo described the tainted over in question from this match: 2.1: Chandila to Finch, 1 run, wide down the leg side, but he gets some bat on it, and takes a single to short fine 2.2: Chandila to Uthappa, FOUR, too straight with the fine leg up, and he has been swept away for four 2.3: Chandila to Uthappa, FOUR, too short, outside off, Uthappa backs away to make room and cut him in front of square for four 2.4: Chandila to Uthappa, no run, quicker delivery, skids on towards off, defended off the back foot 2.5: Chandila to Uthappa, 1 run, tossed up, middle and leg, driven to long-on 2.6: Chandila to Finch, FOUR, full, on the pads, and the leg-side field is up, and it has been swept away for four