A collective effort by Rajasthan Royals batsmen saw them reach a respectable score of 170 for six against Kolkata Knight Riders in their first IPL encounter at home today.
Put into bat, in-form openers Karun Nair (44) and Ajinkya Rahane (30) gave a good start while Sanju Samson (37) and skipper Shane Watson (31) also made useful contributions to prop up the score.
Sunil Narine was again the pick of the bowlers grabbing two for 28 in four overs while R Vinay Kumar also got a couple wickets despite being smashed for 42 in four overs.
Rahane flicked Vinay off the very first ball of the match to start the innings in right earnest. In Yadav's second and fourth over of the innings, he carted the pacer for a four and a six off successive deliveries.
When Narine dropped one short, he drove the 'Mystery Man' through the covers as Royals reached the 50-run mark.
Having reached 30 off 22 balls with the help of three fours and a six, Rahane looked set for a big knock before it was cut short by a direct throw by Narine from short fine leg position. Rahane who was running to the striker's end could not make it despite a full stretched dive. The opening stand between Nair and Rahane yielded 52 runs in 6.3 overs.
Young Nair however carried on in his calm and calculative manner as he added another 53 with the talented Samson.
He may not be one of the explosive players on the block but find of Karnataka's triumphant Ranji season certainly has the technique to play top quality bowling. On two occasions, he used his feet to sweep Shakib al Hasan's deliveries.
He also got a six with a mis-hit off a Yadav full-toss that flew over deep square leg boundary.
However the wily Shakib got his revenge when he cleverly bowled it wide outside off and the batsman had no chance with keeper Robin Uthappa completing the stumping. Nair's 44 came off 35 balls with four boundaries and a six.
