Pravin Tambe was the feel-good story of IPL-6 but his tale is fast transitioning into a too-good-to-be-true one this year. The leggie stepped up when it mattered for the third match in a row as his twin strikes helped Rajasthan Royals assume control of their match against the Delhi Daredevils at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Saturday.
Delhi had begun on the front-foot thanks to Quinton de Kock’s stroke-filled 42, but Tambe got rid of the young South African and skipper Kevin Pietersen in the same over to peg back the home team.
Delhi struggled to recover from the twin blow until a late flourish from JP Duminy and Kedar Jadhav helped them reach a respectable 152/5.
Royals skipper Shane Watson said after electing to bat that he wouldn’t be surprised if he had to go on a long run chase and it certainly looked the case early on. De Kock started imperiously, driving the second ball of Stuart Binny’s opening over to the boundary. Dhawal Kulkarni was shown where the long-leg boundary was –
>> Gallery: Daredevils Fail to Stop Rajasthan
De Kock scoring his 2000th T20 run with that shot - before Shane Watson was flicked nonchalantly over the ropes.
James Faulkner though achieved a timely breakthrough at the other end. His first ball was misjudged by Murali Vijay who spooned a catch straight into the hands of Watson at mid-off.
Rajasthan looked to have achieved another breakthrough a couple of overs later as Pietersen found himself out of the crease after some smart glovework by Sanju Samson. Umpire Sanjay Hazare though bizarrely refused to refer the decision to the third umpire though Pietersen was clearly out of his crease.
Then Tambe happened! First he tempted Pietersen into picking Steve Smith at long-on off in the third ball of the tenth over. Three balls later, he sent danger-man De Kock back to the pavilion, catching him off his own bowling.
The runs dried up for the Daredevils with the two new men in the middle taking their time, and one of them ran out of it - Dinesh Karthik holing up to Stuart Binny at deep-square-leg off Faulkner. The other one – JP Duminy – upped the ante towards the fag end of the innings in the company of Kedar Jadhav, scoring a 29-ball 33, dragging Daredevils past the 150-mark.