Jaipur: A century stand between openers Yusuf Pathan and Graeme Smith helped Rajasthan Royals notch up a convincing eight wicket victory over Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League match here tonight.

Put in to bat at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, the Deccan Chargers spoiled a good start to score a modest 140 for eight in their allotted quota of 20 overs. The hosts overhauled the target in 16 overs by losing only two wickets.

Right from the start, Yusuf unleashed his fireworks and hit the Chargers bowlers all over the park. At an envious strike rate of 183,he struck nine boundaries and two massive sixes in his 37-ball 68 and put up a 109-run opening stand with Smith.

Before being caught by Herschelle Gibbs off the bowling of left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha in the 13th over, Yusuf, who was adjudged the man of the match, had taken his side much closer to the victory target.

Smith, on the other hand, played a patient knock of 40 from 43 balls which included four hits to the fence. His knock ended soon after Yusuf s departure as the South African was caught by Ojha at mid on while trying a big hit off R P Singh.

Mohammad Kaif (17) and Shane Watson (5), however, saw the Rajasthan team through with four overs to spare.

Earlier, the Chargers lost momentum in the latter half of their innings and failed to capitalise on Adam Gilchrist's useful knock.

Deccan Chargers scored 140 for eight against Rajasthan Royals in an Indian Premier League match at the Sawai Mansingh stadium here on Friday.

Sent in to bat, Deccan Chargers got a good start with stand-in-skipper Adam Gilchrist scoring 61 off 49 balls but Rajasthan Royals bowlers fought back with some quick wickets to put the visitors on the backfoot. Venugopal Rao (23) hit three boundaries in the final overs to give some respectability to the score.

Rajasthan Royals skipper Shane Warne bowled a disciplined spell to take two wickets giving just 20 runs in four overs. Earlier, Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to field against Deccan Chargers.

Teams:

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne (Captain) Graeme Smith, N K Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Shane Watson, Mohammad Kaif, Ravindra Jadeja, Mahesh Rawat (wicket-keeper), Sohail Tanvir, Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.

Deccan Chargers: Adam Gilchrist (Captain and wicket-keeper), Ravi Teja, Herschelle Gibbs, Rohit Sharma, Scott Styris, Venugopal Rao, Shahid Afridi, Sanjay Bangar, R P Singh, D P Vijaykumar, Pragyan Ojha.

Source : IANS