RR WON BY 10 RUNS

e started yesterday evening and finally the wait was answered with a win for RR, today. Worth its weight in gold, this win, against DD. Safe to say their bunnies. The fortunes changed sides before the rains came down. But then the big break ensured DD were up against it. A chase of 71 needed some bravado but it never came despite a batting line up consisting of - Maxwell, Munro, Morris and Pant. The bowlers led by Ben Laughlin used the cutters and slower balls to derail the chase. So, RR have opened their account, DD's wait will continue but ours is over. We will whisk off. This is Kumar Abhisekh Das signing off in the company of Pratyush Sinha, Sriram, Hari Prasad, Rishi Roy and Naga!

Sanju Samson, Man of the Match: "Feels really amazing. We wanted a win badly at our home ground and it feels good to get our first win of the season. I think it's about the preparation, we had about 4 camps before the IPL and an excellent support staff who give us lot of freedom. This is one of the best grounds in India. Credit to the groundstaff for all the work (during the rain delay)."

Ajinkya Rahane, RR captain: "Good way to start at home. We were thinking that 71 will be little difficult in 6 overs. But we focused on things we could control. Our bowlers did a fantastic job. When we were batting we thought 165-170 would have been a good score. First over from Gowtham was very crucial. T20 is all about starting from zero, whether we win or lose. We will enjoy this win and move forward."

Gautam Gambhir, DD captain: "We were very much in the game. It was a beautiful wicket to bat on, then 150-odd for 5 in 18 overs, we thought we could contain them to 170 and it was chaseable, especially with dew coming in later on. We were very much happy with the first innings. But then in 6 overs, 71 was tough. We had to go from ball one. Obviously with these sort of games, things could go either way. Just 2 overs of Powerplay, it's very difficult. If it was a 20-over game, it would've been much easier to chase."

Sarthak says: "Is it just me or Vijay Shankar actually slices every shot?" -- He does have a very "angles" game on the off-side, if you get what I mean.