Rajasthan Royals Win Inaugural Indian Premier League

Rajasthan Royals were crowned the winners of inaugural IPL as they beat Chennai Super Kings by three wickets to clinch a win off the final ball in a tense finale at the Dr D Y Patil Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday.

Rajasthan's reply in pursuit of 164 was hinged on opener Swapnil Asnodkar and Shane Watson's identical contribution of 28 runs.

But the innings gained impetus from Yusuf Pathan's blazing 56, who scored 4 sixes, and backed it with his three wicket haul in the first innings to win the man of the match prize.

Captain Shane Warne struck late blows while Sohail Tanvir hit the winning runs to guide Rajasthan to a historic title win in the inaugural edition.

The Chennai innings was set up by opener Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina, the same pair which had won them the semi-final on Saturday.

The duo scored 38 and 43 respectively to give Dhoni's team a good platform to build towards a fighting total after Rajasthan has opted to field first.

Skipper Dhoni himself finished with 29 not out as Yusuf Pathan turned the star for Rajasthan with 3-22 and he later went on to score a brillaint 56, but was unfortunately run out in the closin stages.

Scoreboard
Rajasthan Royals Innings
Niraj Patel b M Gony 2
Swapnil Asnodkar c S Raina b A Morkel 28
Kamran Akmal (wk) run out (M Ntini) 6
Shane Watson b M Muralitharan 28
Yusuf Pathan run out (S Raina) 56
Mohammad Kaif c MS Dhoni b M Muralitharan 12
Ravindra Jadeja c C Kapugedara b A Morkel 0
Shane Warne not out 9 9 1 0 100.00
Sohail Tanvir not out 9
Extras: b - 1, w - 5, nb - 2, lb - 6 14
Total:(164 for 7 in 20 overs) 164 Run Rate: 8.20

Fall Of Wickets
1/19 (Niraj Patel, 3.1 ov.), 2/41 (Swapnil Asnodkar, 6.1 ov.), 3/42 (Kamran Akmal, 6.4 ov.), 4/107 (Shane Watson, 14.1 ov.), 5/139 (Mohammad Kaif, 16.6 ov.), 6/139 (Ravindra Jadeja, 17.1 ov.), 7/143 (Yusuf Pathan, 17.4 ov.)

Bowling: Chennai Super Kings
Makhaya Ntini 4 1 21 0
Manpreet Gony 4 0 30 1
Albie Morkel 4 0 25 2
Lakshmipathy Balaji 4 0 42 0
Muttiah Muralitharan 4 0 39 2

Chennai Super Kings Innings
Parthiv Patel c K Akmal b Y Pathan 38
Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan c R Jadeja b Y Pathan 16
Suresh Raina c R Jadeja b S Watson 43
Albie Morkel c K Akmal b Y Pathan 16
Mahendra Singh Dhoni not out 29
Chamara Kapugedara c S Asnodkar b S Tanvir 8
Subramaniam Badrinath not out 6
Extras: b - 1, w - 3, nb - 1, lb - 2 7
Total:(163 for 5 in 20 overs) 163 Run Rate: 8.15

Fall Of Wickets
1/39 (Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, 5.2 ov.), 2/64 (Parthiv Patel, 8.6 ov.), 3/95 (Albie Morkel, 12.4 ov.), 4/128 (Suresh Raina, 16.2 ov.), 5/148 (Chamara Kapugedara, 19.1 ov.)

Bowling: Rajasthan Royals
Sohail Tanvir 4 0 40 1
Shane Watson 4 0 29 1
Munaf Patel 2 0 14 0
Yusuf Pathan 4 0 22 3
Siddharth Trivedi 2 0 21 0
Shane Warne 4 0 34 0