The unfavoured Rajasthan Royals march on, knocking off another fancied side.   As the archetypal team stronger than the sum of it’s parts, Shane Warne’s men put together another scrapping performance to turn over a Kolkata side shorn of McCullum and Ponting, and in the end won with relative ease.   Consistent cameo batting performances and regular-as-clockwork unthumpable yorkers sealed the deal, and the Royals march on...

IPL Match Report
Date                                  : 1/5/2008
Teams (Home first)              : Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders
Result                                : Rajasthan won, 45 runs
Toss Won                          : Rajasthan, chose to field
Top Bat Home                    : Asnodkar, 60
Top Bat Away                     : Ganguly 51
Highest first 6 over score      : Raj 45, Kol 51
Highest Opening Partnership :  Raj 11, Kol 15
Total sixes hit                     : Raj 5, Kol 6
Total wides                        : Kol bowled 3, Raj bowled 7
Total run outs                    : 4

Lineups / Scorecard

Rajasthan
G. Smith        b Sharma                  2 (7b)
S. Asnodkar   c Hussey   b Gul        60 (34b)
M. Kaif          c and        b Agarkar  21 (18b)
Y. Pathan      b Gul                       55 (33b)
S. Watson     lbw          b Gul          0 (1b)
R. Jadeja       b Shukla                  33 (19b)
S. Warne       run out                     7 (8b)
S. Tanvir       not out                      3 (3b)
M. Rawat      not out                      1 (b)
S. Trivedi
M. Patel
Total           (7 wickets, 20 overs)        196

Kolkata
S. Butt         b Tanvir                    7 (7b)
S. Ganguly    c Kaif       b Warne   51 (39b)
A. Agarkar    c Rawat   b Watson  20 (18b)
B. Hodge      run out                    1 (3b)
D. Hussey     b Trivedi                 42 (30b)
L. Shukla      run out                    2 (2b)
D. Das          c Tanvir   b Watson  11 (13b)
W. Saha       b Trivedi                   1 (2b)
U. Gul          run out                     2 (2b)
I. Sharma     not out                     1 (1b)
A. Dinda      c Sub   b Trivedi         1 (3b)
Total          (all out, 19.1 overs)       151

Swapnil Asnodkar ... re-arrange these letters into the name of a debutant IPL batsman - oh, sorry, that’s his actual name.   The anagrammatically endowed Asnodkar exploded onto the IPL scene with a sparkling top scoring 60, belying his diminutive frame to hit the ball with power and intelligence.   From his first ball, which he glove-hooked over the keeper for four, Asnodkar looked like he belonged in this league, with well timed shots and pulls typical for a man of his stature....