BANGALORE: The Chinnaswamy Stadium was supposed to be Rahul Dravid's home ground. Indeed, even when he came out for the toss it was very much so, with the huge roar from the goodly crowd being met with a typically shy wave of the hand.At the end of the match, though, it was Dravid's opening partner, Ajinkya Rahane, who made the venue his own with the first IPL 5 ton.
No doubt an IPL game is not the best place to judge talent but given the charged atmosphere at the ground and the skills of some of the Bangalore bowlers, this indeed was a rare innings, one that was paced perfectly and played in two distinct two halves.
Unbeaten on 36 at the end of the 10th over in a Jaipur tally of 61 for no loss, Rahane added a further 77 in the next 10 in the company of an even more belligerent Owais Shah (60; 26b, 5x4, 5x6) as he made his way to a blistering 103 not out from a mere 60 balls (12x4, 5x6).
The second-wicket duo's 50-ball, 121-run association allowed Jaipur to end with an imposing 195 for two.
Bangalore, needing to score at 9.80 an over, began well, with openers Mayank Agarwal and Chris Gayle launching the chase in style.
But once pacer Pankaj Singh had accounted for both the openers, Jaipur's quest for their first away win came about rather easily, Bangalore going down by 59 runs.
Earlier, for all that Rahane did, Jaipur also owed it to Shah, a man who has honed his T20 skills by playing the format all over the world.
The Karachi-born Englishman, after seeing Rahane take six successive fours off returning left-arm seamer S Arvind's third and obviously final over of the night, simply tore apart the Bangalore bowling.
For once the numbers too told the tale. Zaheer Khan, easily the best bowler on view, and Daniel Vettori commanded respect, the former returning superb figures of 4-1-15-1, but with the others the story was altogether different.
Muthiah Muralitharan was taken for 17 in his final over, Gayle 21 in his only over and the usually dependable Vinay Kumar carted for 51 from his four. In the end it all added up too much for Bangalore to handle.