Centurion - Naman Ohja stroked his way to a half century to take the Rajasthan Royals to a comfortable seven wicket victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL Twenty20 match at Supersport Park on Thursday.
Chasing 106 to win, the Royals got there for the loss of three wickets and with five overs to spare. It was sweet revenge for the defending champions - when the two teams met in Cape Town last month, the Challengers bundled the Royals out for a mere 58 runs to win by 75.
Thursday's win meant that the Royals moved to the top of the log, with 11 points from nine matches, and they appear increasingly likely to reach the semi-final stages. The Challengers remain in the bottom half of the log, with eight points from nine matches.
Ohja reached his 50 off 38 balls, hitting three boundaries and three sixes. He had backup from Graeme Smith (20) and Yusuf Pathan (22).
Sent in to bat by the Rajasthan Royals, the Royal Challengers appeared to be out of sorts throughout their innings. In the third over, Wassim Jaffer mistimed his shot off an Amit Singh delivery and spooned the ball to Lee Carseldine at short cover, for 10, and the Challengers lost wickets at regular intervals after that.
Jacques Kallis hit the ball high into the air and was caught at deep backward square leg by Niraj Patel off Munaf Patel for 10, and the Challengers continue to go down like flies.
Robin Uthappa, with a modest 17 runs, was the top scorer. At the halfway stage, they were 49 for four and their final score was an exceptionally modest 105 all out.