Warne spins Rajasthan into IPL semi-final race
It’s no co-incidence that the personal resurgence of Shane Warne has corresponded with a similar improvement in the performances of the Rajasthan Royals in this year’s IPL.
Warne, who, let’s face it, doesn’t play too much competitive cricket these days, opened the IPL season in form that was well below what we have come to expect from one of the finest spinners cricket has seen.
There’s no better example of both the improvement in both the leg-spinner and the team than in the 36th match of the season yesterday, when Warne’s four middle-order wickets helped his side to hold off the Deccan Chargers, who fell two runs short off reaching Rajasthan’s modest, by IPL standards, 159-run total.
The four for 21 that Warne took in the match are the best figures the Rajasthan skipper has recorded in the IPL. Among them were the crucial scalps of Azhar Bilakhia and Ryan Harris in the 18th over, and from that point Rajasthan were at least in with a chance, with their opponents needing 19 runs from two overs to clinch the victory.
Deccan, having reduced the required runs to just six from the final over, then concluded their innings by playing like a team that had forgotten how to win, and were dismissed with a ball to spare as medium-pacer Siddharth Trivedi continued from where his captain had left-off.
The win broke a two-match losing streak for the Royals, who are now firmly back in semi-final contention. For Deccan though, the loss was their fifth in succession and leaves them second from the bottom of the IPL points table, their chances of back-to-back IPL titles looking increasingly remote.
No doubt Rajasthan can be inconsistent, and are one of a clutch of teams fighting for one of perhaps two remaining semi-final places in this year’s competition – the Mumbai Indians and probably the Delhi Daredevils have locked in their places in the top four – but their improvement from their opening matches of the year has been marked.
The only dip Warne delivered in Rajasthan’s opening matches was to help his side to three straight losses in their opening trio of matches; and there wasn’t much turn to be seen either as Rajasthan headed straight towards the foot of the IPL points table.
Questions were inevitably asked about the Australian’s place in the Royals XI. Was Warne clinging to one of four valuable overseas slots that could have handed to an in-form player? Did Warne’s captaincy prowess cancel out any shortcomings with his bowling?
Since those inauspicious beginnings, the man who is arguably the best skipper in the competition has turned around both his own form and that of his team as the season has progressed.
Against Deccan, the 40-year-old varied his pace, executed those ripping legbreaks with aplomb and got the results when they were most needed.
With Rajasthan now nestled in fourth spot on the points table, and Warne back to his bamboozling best, the skipper can be forgiven for his early-season rust.
Despite yesterday’s fine bowling figures, Warne’s a little way out of contention for the purple cap with his 10 wickets in 10 matches so far this season – it’s another leg-spinner in Delhi's Amit Mishra leads with 14 wickets from nine matches so far – but it’s team success that Warne is chasing anyway.
He took Rajasthan to the top in the inaugural season of the IPL in 2008, and if the Royals can lock in a semi-final berth, with Warne at the helm they can’t be discounted from winning the competition once again.
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