Rajasthan look much better when they are chasing a modest total on a tough pitch than when they are trying to set a big target on a batting surface. The way Dravid and Watson batted showed just why that is true. On a pitch that could not have been more different from the slow tracks that Jaipur has seen, crisp shots mostly found the fielders. It didn't look like the duo would get out, but they also did not trouble Bangalore too much despite the ball coming on nicely with true bounce.
Dravid hit six boundaries, most of them classical and beautiful to watch, and Watson muscled a couple of sixes but there was always the feeling that they could have gone harder, considering the powerful batting line-up they were up against. Despite being in control throughout, Dravid played out 13 dot balls; Watson outdid him with 17.Both showed glimpses of their range though. Dravid got forward and opened the face to ease Zaheer between cover and point. The next ball was on the pads, and Dravid flowed in to a fluent drive that purred past mid-on. Watson had lofted Aravind over mid-off and pulled him to the midwicket boundary in the previous over.
It appeared for a while as if Rajasthan would gallop off the blocks today, and not canter. Charl Langeveldt's first over went for just two, but his second cost 11. Watson targeted Aravind, a mis-hit just beat deep midwicket but the next ball was smacked over the sightscreen. It was in Aravind's third over that Bangalore wrested control. Watson went hard at a full delivery but only found AB de Villiers - Arun Karthik had replaced him behind the stumps today - on the wide long-on boundary. Two deliveries later, Dravid fell to another soft dismissal, hitting one straight back to Aravind.
Virat Kohli - leading in place of the injured Daniel Vettori - brought himself on and got away with three overs of innocuous but tight slow-mediums. Ajinkya Rahane carried on from his half-century in the previous game, but Johan Botha took off after reverse-sweeping to point and Rahane had to sacrifice his wicket with a needless run-out.Botha could not do much to make up for his error as Aravind found the outside edge with one that moved away and Arun Karthik to take the chance.At 124 for 4 with three overs to go, Rajasthan needed some frenetic hitting from Ross Taylor and Ashok Menaria, but they fell in successive overs, both holing out to Mohammad Kaif in the deep. Rajasthan plodded to a middling total as Bangalore's varied attack gave nothing away. Zaheer and Langeveldt were miserly, Chris Gayle and Kohli chipped in but the star was Aravind.
Against a strong Bangalore batting line-up, 146 seems inadequate, unless Shane Warne can come up with a special show on the field during his last home IPL match.
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