That was an humiliating performance by Delhi Daredevils in the first Semi Final of the inaugural IPL 
Tournament. Playing at a neutral venue Rajasthan Royals annihilated Delhi Daredevils in an one sided encounter. Delhi was never looking in a position to steal the victory from the in-form Rajasthan Royals. Rajasthan have had a great run through the tournament and with them being the first team for the finals, the other will be decided from the next semi final encounter. I think a sheer mistake can only defy them from being crowned as the champions of the inaugural IPL Twenty20 Championship.
Coming to the first semi final encounter between Delhi Daredevils and Rajsthan Royals, some great performances were seen both with the bat and ball by the Rajasthan. It all started off well, Smith and Asnodkar got them off to a crackling start, both put on 65 before both the openers fell in the same over of Maharoof. Smith had to use the services of Kaif as runner as he was injured. 4 wickets down for 128 and with 6 more overs left, the game could swing in any way. But Watson and Yusuf Pathan provided the big hits with Watson scoring 52 of just 29 deliveries and Yusuf Pathan scoring 45 of 21 deliveries with 4 hits into the crowd. With the fireworks provided by Watson and Pathan, Rajasthan Royals managed 192 in their quota of 20 overs with the loss of 9 wickets.
Delhi started their innings miserably with Shane Watson sending their top 3 batsmen to the pavilion by the end of 6th over with just 24 runs on board 🙁 . Delhi could never recover and from then on they kept loosing wickets at regular intervals and their batting folded up for mere 87 runs. How miserable it is for a team with likes of Gambhir, Sehwag, Dhawan,Dilshan and others. Dilshan was the only batsmen who showed some resistance to the Rajasthan bowlers who were bang on target today. It was unlucky that Sohail Tanvir went wicketless in the 2 overs he bowled. It was Shane Watson- the man who had already done damage with the bat- came back and this time the damage was more devastating. He picked up 3 wickets for mere 10 runs in 4 overs with an economy of just 3.33 runs per over and scored blitzkrieg knock of 52. Shane Watson was adjudged Man Of the Match, which he truly deserved. Munaf Patel also picked up 3 wickets with an equally good economy. Captain Warne also picked 2 wickets. Warne has led the team by example. He has justly used the limited resources available and made the most of it.
Some Rajasthan players whom i would see to be performing well in the last match of the IPL tournament- Final Match- would be- Mohammad Kaif- highest paid player of Rajasthan has been going through a lean run :(, Tanvir, Smith, Warne, Patel. Actually i would like to see the whole team performing great. Now Rajasthan will be looking forward for tomorrows Semi Final. Hey they aren’t playing tomorrow. They will be looking for who would join them at the Final so that they can have their plans in place 😉
Result of 1st Semi Final- Rajasthan Royals won by 105 runs.
Venue of the 1st Semi Final- Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai