It was a battle within a battle - a battle of two captains. Both members of an all-conquering Australian team, both legitimate contenders for an all-time eleven, both retired now but leading their respective teams in the IPL. Most importantly perhaps, both known to respect the other's skill, but not best friends off the field. They would both be going in with extra determination in this contest, irrespective of the state of the tournament or the points table. As it happened, this was an important match in any case. Rajasthan had to win to not fall back and make it that much harder to reach the semis, while Hyderabad had to win to get back the winning momentum after the loss to Delhi. Rajasthan were without new find Kamran Khan who had injured himself in the previous match against Chennai. On a pitch that looked deceptively full of runs, Gilchrist won the toss and chose to bat. Warne unveiled yet another tactic when he not only opened the bowling with Yusuf Pathan, but kept him on for his entire quota of four overs. Yusuf returned with impressive figures of 4-0-19-1, scalping Herschelle Gibbs. Gilchrist started with a flurry of shots, but got tied down by Shane Harwood and Ravindu Jadeja, eventually falling to the latter after scoring 39 (35 balls). The Rajasthan bowlers had kept things under control with some good bowling, and never allowed the Hyderabad batsmen to get away. Shane Harwood and Siddharth Trivedi bowled a clever mix of slower balls and yorkers to deny scoring opportunities to the batsmen. Rohit Sharma and T Suman made useful contributions of 38 (32 balls) and 41 not out (30 balls), which took Hyderabad to 141 for 5. For Rajasthan, debutant Shane Harwood bowled well to return with figures of 4-0-25-2. Rajasthan's run chase started off in the most disastrous fashion possible. After being nearly run out first ball, Graeme Smith slashed the second one straight down the throat of third man. Swapnil Asnodkar was run out next ball and Rajasthan were 1 for 2 in the first over. The next over saw them slide to 3 for 3, when Naman Ojha cut the ball straight to Gibbs at short point, and Rajasthan were digging a hole that would be difficult to get out off. They lost two more wickets before the halfway mark and were 60 for 5 at the strategy break with Warne and Abhishek Raut at the crease, and Yusuf still to come. The break seemed to have revitalised Rajasthan, with Warne and Raut stepping up a gear, until Warne fell trying to clear the boundary once too often. With the equation reading 49 runs to get from 35 balls, Rajasthan had the perfect man to walk out to the middle in Yusuf Pathan. He came, he saw, and he left just before he had fully conquered. But he had ensured that the task was made easy by hitting 24 off 14 balls, and leaving just 11 to get off the final two overs for Rajasthan. It wasn't made easy though, with West Indians Dwayne Smith and Fidel Edwards bowling exceptionally well, and Hyderabad might even have sneaked a win, had it not been for their fielding lapses - a misfield went for four and two fairly easy run-out opportunities were missed - and Rajasthan won through with 2 balls and 3 wickets standing. Youngster Abhishek Raut played a gem of an innings of 36 not out off 23 balls, and Rajasthan served notice that it cannot be taken lightly in spite of some initial setbacks.
Turning Point of the Match:
The 18th over of the Hyderabad innings which Siddharth Trivedi bowled to T Suman and Dwayne Smith. With Suman scoring at a strike rate of nearly 150 and Smith renowned for his big-hitting, Trivedi conceded just 4 runs. Had the Chargers got 10 more - which they would have expected to get at that stage - the result could well have been different.
Man of the Match:
Yusuf Pathan, whose contributions with both bat and ball were game-changing. He stifled the strong Hyderabad top order with his bowling and hit crucial blows while batting to turn the match his team's way.
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