Shane Watson blasted three fours and as many sixes to stand amidst the ruins, even as Michael Lumb (15), Naman Ojha (1), Yusuf pathan (5), Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (11) and Abhishek Raut (0) were dismissed cheaply after skipper Shane Warne elected to bat first.
Rajasthan Royals edged out Deccan Chargers by two runs in their Indian Premier League match in Nagpur today.
Earlier, Shane Watson cracked a scintillating 36-ball 58 but Rajasthan Royals suffered a middle-order batting collapse to be dismissed for 159 by Deccan Chargers.
Watson blasted three fours and as many sixes to stand amidst the ruins, even as Michael Lumb (15), Naman Ojha (1), Yusuf pathan (5), Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (11) and Abhishek Raut (0) were dismissed cheaply after skipper Shane Warne elected to bat first.
Watson played a dashing knock to anchor the Rajasthan innings but their batting capitulated as they lost first half of their side for 130 in 15.2 overs, before losing the last five wickets for just 29 runs.
Rajasthan had a dramatic start after the fourth ball of the first over saw opener Lumb (15) leave the field after Ryan Harris juggled his way to finally hold on to a return catch.
But to his dismay, the third umpire ruled Lumb not out as it was found that the ball had kissed the grass. Getting a life, Lumb picked up the first six of the day hitting Harris over long-off.
Lumb picked up two more fours in the next over off Dwayne Smith before Harris took his catch at deep midwicket off RP Singh in the third over.
One ball later, Singh struck again dismissing Naman Ojha (1) when he had him caught at cover by Harris as Rajasthan were reduced to 17 for two.
However, Faiz Faisal (36) and Watson picked up ones and twos and occasional boundaries to steady the ship with a 51-ball 77-run third wicket partnership to take Rajasthan to 94 in 11 overs.
Faisal hit four boundaries in his 29-ball innings before being sent packing by Pragyan Ojha in the 11th over.
Much was expected from Yusuf Pathan but he gave a simple catch to VVS Laxman as Harris picked up his first wicket.
Watson, however, continued his carnage at the other end and blasted a six in the 14th over off Ojha and then picked up two runs to reach his sixth IPL fifty in 29 balls.
Harmeet Singh then struck twice in the 16th over, removing Jhunjhunwala and Raut in a space of fours balls to reduce Rajasthan to 130 for six in 15.5 overs.
Running out of partners, Watson then biffed RP Singh for a boundary at deep midwicket but the Uttar Pradesh pacer bounced back in the next ball, dismissing the Australian.
Five balls later, a sharp piece of fielding by RP singh sent skipper Shane Warne back into the hut.
Harris then came back to get rid off debutante Aditya Dole in the 19th over, while Smith cleaned up Siddharth Trivedi in the fifth ball of the last over to complete the proceedings.
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