4: RR vs. KXIP

Friday's second match was a much more free scoring affair on a pitch that looked perfect for batting with plenty of pace. It turned to be the story of 2 players, Ajinkya Rahane, who'd previously shown glimpses of his quality in the one day series in England last year, and West Indian newcomer Kevon Cooper.

Gilchrist won the toss and decided to chase, in the knowledge that the pitch would stay true for the course of 40 overs, but Kings XI struggled to ever get into the game. Rajasthan's opening partnership was brilliant one to watch, even some of the anti-20/20 purists would find it difficult to fault the strokeplay of Rahane and Dravid. There were few signs of slogging as balls were hit on the up through the offside and struck back down the ground as they raced along to 57/0 at the end of the powerplay. Dravid eventually fell for 28, looking to force the pace, in the 10th over but all this did was allow Rahane to grab the initiative. His 98 was a pleasure to watch as several shots really stood out, hitting strongly down the ground and whenever any width was presented to him. In the end it was a real shame he was bowled in the last over but his masterclass, along with some late hitting from Owais Shah and Cooper, took RR to a hefty total of 191/4. KXIP will be disappointed with their pace bowlers in particular as both Kumar and Faulkner went at over 10 an over, some good slower balls out of the back of the hand not enough to save Faulkner's figures.

A decent opening stand from Gilchrist and last year's surprise package Paul Valthaty looked set to force a close encounter but when the latter fell to a Cooper loosener, RR took over and wickets at regular intervals left Punjab at 86/5 in the 12th over and effectively out of the game. RR let the game meander to its conclusion from there and, despite some lazy bowling and fielding, were comfortable and deserving victors. Amit Singh bowled well to grab figures of 4-0-26-1 but it was Cooper who undoubtedly stood out in the 2nd half. It was tough to keep him out of the game, playing a part in all of the first 5 wickets to fall, either as bowler or confidently taking catches. West Indians are often good fun to watch when playing with a smile on their face and Cooper was clearly enjoying his near perfect debut. He varied his pace adeptly, taking wickets with a number of slower balls and surprising batsman with pace at times, even taking a couple of catches and a run out. Bought at just $50,000 he looks a real bargain and could play a big role this year, just missing out on MoM to Rahane. He left with some enviable stats - a strike rate of 366.66 and a bowling average and economy of 6.5, not bad at all!

Both sides were expected to struggle this year and so this will be a huge confidence boost to RR whose batting will have alerted many on-lookers whilst KXIP will need better things from their overseas players if their prospects are to pick up and soon.