Warne Puts Chargers in A Spin

We had seen it earlier. We saw it yesterday too. Some things are constant. Like the magic in Shane Warne’s wrists. Warne produced his best spell of IPL-3 when it really mattered to snatch a victory from the jaws of Hyderabad.

Desperate for a victory, Rajasthan started off well with the bat only to lose their way in the second half of their innings. They reached 160 in their 20 overs largely due to the efforts of Shane Watson who hit a magnificent 58 off 36 balls. It’s amazing to see the amount of stability Shane Watson has given to the Rajasthan line-up. Once they reached 160, RR had stats on their side. They have always been successful defending a score of 150 or more – an incredible stat. But this time they had a task of maintaining this stat against the famed Hyderabad line-up who was desperate to do well.

Hyderabad started their inning flamboyantly with Gilly hitting the ball to all corners. But he departed trying to reach the boundary once too often. Hyderabad managed to keep up with the required run rate throughout the innings but kept losing wickets at regular intervals. When the situation got crunch Warne took the challenge of restricting Hyderabad and finished with figures of 4 for 21 in his 4 overs which made the difference.

For DC, Rohit Sharma played a brilliant innings of 73, almost getting the Hyderabad home. In a dramatic last over, with the Hyderabad only needing 6 runs and Rohit Sharma still on crease, Warne took a gamble which only he could. He gave the ball to young Sidhartha Trivedi ahead of the seasoned Shane Watson who had an over to spare. With his leader well and truly behind him, Trivedi bowled a magnificent last over giving just 3 runs and getting the wicket of Rohit Sharma and RP Singh.

By all means it was one of the best matches of IPL-3 and Warne’s captaincy made it look like a blockbuster Bollywood movie with a perfect climax. Some of the best games in IPL history have been with Rajasthan involved. Rajasthan have this element of unpredictability in them which makes the game exciting. Be it the game against Mumbai, where Yusuf Pathan nearly pulled it off with a brilliant century or the match against Chennai where they did the impossible or yesterday’s match, Rajasthan is surely the most exciting team of IPL!!

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