Rajasthan Royals got their Indian Premier League campaign off to a winning start with an eight-wicket victory over the Deccan Chargers in Hyderabad on Saturday.

SCORECARD

Siddharth Trivedi and Amit Singh took three wickets apiece to restrict the Chargers to 137 for eight in their 20 overs, Dwaraki Ravi Teja top-scoring with 28.

Johan Botha then justified his promotion to number three with an unbeaten 67 from just 47 balls as Rajasthan chased down the target with seven balls to spare.

Batting first, Deccan made 137 for eight thanks to a late flurry from Dan Christian and Ravi Teja.

After Shikhar Darwan made 24 from 15 balls in an opening stand of 40 with Ishank Jaggi, the Chargers were pegged by two quick wickets from Siddharth Trivedi, including Sri Lanka's World Cup captain Kumar Sangakkara for a duck.

Shane Warne took two for 21 but Christian hit two sixes in his 26 from 19 balls before falling to Trivedi (three for 15) and Ravi Teja added 28 from 20.

Amit Singh (three for 35) removed Ravi Teja and Dale Steyn in a good last over.

Wicketkeeper Amit Paunikar (20) and veteran Rahul Dravid (28) got the Royals' innings off to a solid start with an opening stand of 31, the latter then adding 52 with Botha, who hit eight fours and a six.

And when Dravid fell, New Zealander Ross Taylor emerged to hit 21 from 14 balls in an unbroken stand of 58 with Botha to complete a routine win.

Steyn took both wickets to fall, for a cost of 18 runs.