Deccan Chargers beat Rajathan Royals

Match No. 40: Rajasthan Royals vs. Deccan Chargers

When: On May 11, 2009

Where: At the De Beers Diamond Oval in Kimberley

Who won: Deccan Chargers

Now: By a whopping 53 runs – margin that can haunt Rajasthan Royals later

Man of the match: Dwayne Smith for knock of 47 with four sixes

MVP of the match: Chaminda Vaas

What did he do: Vaas, who has been watching the matches from the sidelines, proved his worth by scoring a crucial 20 off 15 balls and then sending back Graeme Smith and Lee Carseldine in his first spell. He finished with the figures of 4-0-19-2.

Turning points: A 35-run stand in 14 deliveries between Dwayne Smith and Venugopal Rao. Rajasthan Royals needed opener Graeme Smith to play a big knock but the big man disappointed and the team never recovered from his early loss in the second innings.

Innovative stroke: In the 10th over, Swapnil Asnodkar played an uppish cut off Pragyan Ojha which took a big top edge and flew wide of the short third man for four.

Captain vs. captain: Shane Warne was let down yet another time by his top-order in the tournament. Chasing a competitive total of 166 runs, all the batsmen except Swapnil Asnodkar failed to get starts. Gilly was all pumped up throughout the second innings and marshaled his resources to perfection.

Off-beat moment: In a bizarre incident, Lee Carseldine failed to connect a Vaas delivery and it went into Gilchrist’s hands after hitting his pads. The wicketkeeper appealed for a caught behind but Carseldine didn’t realize that the keeper had the ball and went for a single, Gilchrist whipped off the bails and the square-leg umpire gave him out.