Rajasthan Royals beat Pune Warriors by 5 wickets

Jaipur, May 5: Rajasthan Royals beat Pune Warriors by five wickets in an Pepsi Indian Premier League match which was held in Jaipur on Sunday.

Chasing a target of 179, Royals won with a ball to spare. Ajinkya Rahane struck a scintillating 67 while Rahul Dravid produced an age-defying innings to maintain Rajasthan Royals' impeccable 'home' record.

The win propelled Rajasthan to fourth position in the league table with 14 points from 11 matches while Pune Warriors suffered their seventh successive loss in the tournament with no chances of them making the play-offs.

By the virtue of this win, Royals also exacted a 'sweet revenge' on their opponents, having tasted defeat on the previous occasion when the two sides met in Pune on April 11.

The match went down to the wire as Royals lost some quick wickets after the second strategic time-out was taken but Stuart Binny's unbeaten 13-ball 32 ensured that 'Fort SMS' wasn't breached.

Royals registered their sixth win at home with one ball to spare.

Chasing a challenging target of 179 runs, Rahane and Dravid (58, 40 balls, 9x4, 6x1) provided their team a solid start, adding 98 runs for the opening-wicket partnership in just 11.5 overs.

For Rajasthan, James Faulkner, Kevon Cooper and Siddharth Trivedi picked up a wicket apiece.

Warriors were off to a dream start as Finch and Uthappa made full use of the field restrictions and plundered runs at will. Uthappa continued from he had left against the RCB and put on display his vast repertoire of stroke-play.