http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rajasthan-c837 Royals captain Shane Warne lashes out at Jaipur wicket
Rajasthan Royals captain, Shane Warne, has given a new twist to the controversy over the Jaipur wicket. He termed the idea of making a new track for the Royals’ remaining home matches as "ridiculous".
"In the past four years we have never been told to play on any particular wicket. It is ridiculous to have instructions for pitch," a fuming Warne said.
On a sluggish Jaipur wicket, Shane Warne and company suffered a humiliating 63-run defeat at the hands of Chennai Super Kings on Monday, April 9, 2011.
Put into bat, CSK posted a massive total of 196 with the help of power hitting by Chennai's top four batsmen, Michael Hussey (46), http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mahendra-Singh-Dhoni-c73820 (41).
In response, the Rajasthani batting line-up collapsed terribly as the whole team was bowled out at 133.
The Jaipur pitch controversy started when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820 Indians’ skipper, Sachin Tendulkar, cited the wicket as two-paced after his team’s batting collapsed on a paltry 94 runs against the Royals on April 29, 2011.
Warne counterbalanced Master Blaster’s remarks, saying that the Mumbai Indians were just searching for lame excuses after being outplayed by his team.
The dispute between the two cricket greats prompted pitch inspector, Venkat Sundaram, to reach Jaipur and order to lay completely new tracks for the rest of the matches at the venue.
When asked whether the Royals lost home advantage because of the new pitch, Warne responded that it was his team’s right to take full advantage of the home conditions but the side could not enjoy that against CSK because of a new track used in the game.
"The wickets for earlier matches were fantastic. If you had been watching earlier matches here you can make out easily that today’s wicket was different. It has come as a shock and surprise that we were being instructed to play on certain kind of wicket,"
the legendary Aussie leg-spinner added.
Meanwhile, Warne felt that the blistering innings from Dhoni in the death overs proved to be the turning point in the crucial game. However, he made it clear that 190 was a chase-able score.
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