The Rajasthan Royals crossed the 200-run mark for the first time in IPL 2014 en route to a big win over the beleaguered Delhi Daredevils in their match in Ahmedabad on Thursday night.
In an all-round batting performance, led by the excellent Ajinkya Rahane, the Royals stormed to 201 for six in their 20 overs, with the likes of Kevon Cooper, Sanju Samson and James Faulkner also contributing nicely.
In reply, if you can call it a reply, the Delhi Daredevils lost half their side in the first ten overs, with it ending all hopes of fashioning a big chase.
DD skipper Kevin Pietersen admitted he had made a mistake in deciding to bowl first after winning the toss on a pitch which was good for batting first up.
"I'll hold my hands up and say I made the wrong decision by deciding to bowl first," Pietersen said. "The pitch certainly slowed down in the second innings, and that made our jobs a lot more difficult.
The Englishman admitted his team were just not clicking at the moment after crashing to their ninth defeat in 11 matches, but was hopeful of making a turnaround in their last three games.
"Look we're trying a lot of things it's just not going according to plan at the moment," he added. "There is no point in blaming anybody, we're just not hitting the straps.
"We just got to keep doing the simple things, we just got to keep doing it right. I have played a lot of cricket around the world, I've been doing it for many years, and I know if we keep at it we will turn things around."
Steven Smith, the skipper for the day, after Shane Watson decided to sit the game out with a niggle, could not have been more satisfied with the team's performance.
"It was outstanding," the Australian said at the presentation ceremony. "I did not have to do anything, sit on the sidelines and just keep it simple in the field, it was perfect. The bowling performance was very good, everyone bowled to their plans, everyone fielded well, it was just a clinical performance all around."
Man of the match Ajinkya Rahane, who anchored the innings perfectly for his side, was also happy to have contributed to the team's win.
"Really enjoyed batting on this wicket, the wicket got slightly slow after the first six overs, but I really enjoyed my batting," Rahane said. "We didn't really talk about overall targets, we just wanted to play positive and bat well.
"Whoever is set in the middle, we just want them to hand around and I'm happy I did that for my team this game."
Catch Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils Highlights HERE, HERE or HERE.
