Watson floors ordinary Mumbai in Warne’s swansong
Shane Warne may have grabbed all the headlines in the build up to the match but it was the other Australian Shane- all rounder Watson who played a blazing innings to put Mumbai in real danger of losing out on a play-off spot with a ten-wicket victory. The spin-wizard ended his professional career on a high; his leadership inspired Rajasthan to put up a gritty performance in a match where they were the clear underdogs. The hosts, Mumbai just wilted under pressure first while batting and then Watson ran away with the game in a blink.
Chasing 134 at the Wankhede stadium Rajasthan shut the door for Mumbai very quickly and did not let them come back in the game even once. Mumbai’s main weapon in their bowling arsenal, ‘slinger’ Lasith Malinga had to get some early wickets but was unexpectedly taken to the cleaners by a violent Shane Watson. He hit the Australian in the neck with a stinging bouncer and that seemed to have fired him up in the fourth over. After that, he clobbered Malinga for four gigantic sixes, most by a batsman in a single innings against the ‘purple cap’ holder in this IPL.
All this happened as the Sri-lankan tried to intimidate Watson with a barrage of bouncers but the hard hitting batsman hammered him every time the length shortened. The usually frugal Malinga conceded 42 runs in four overs. Even the wily Harbhajan looked off-colour against Watto, he was also deposited in the stands a couple of times in his first over.
When the Watson fireworks were on, he had an excellent partner in the form of Rahul Dravid who is very good at playing the role of second-fiddle. While, his partner looked to muscle the ball, the classy right-hander played the trademark nudges to rotate the strike with an odd text-book shot to the ropes. The two overhauled the target in little over 13 overs, the huge victory margin denting Mumbai’s net run rate, that may in the end prove to be very crucial for the top-four spot. Watson belligerent knock of 89 runs came off just 47 deliveries; Dravid scored a sublime 43 from just 32 balls.
Watson has earlier stared with ball as well as Mumbai’s batting woes continued. The home side could not build on a fine Rohit Sharma half-century and ended with only a paltry total on the board. After opting to bat on a good pitch, Mumbai would have been in trouble early if umpire Paul Reifell hadn’t got two decisions wrong.
Warne opened with left armer Ankeet Chavan, who trapped Sachin in front on the very second ball only for the umpire to turn down what looked like a straight forward decision. Suman though went early, Tendulkar survived another confident appeal. Rayudu also did not do much and when the little master fell in the twelfth over with the score reading 65, Rajasthan were well and truly dominating the proceedings.
Rohit Shrama however continued his good form and played a fighting knock of 58 runs. Though, Pollard was promoted above Andrew Symonds, he did not do lot of damage, just two fours flew off his bat. The highlight of the first innings was the last over bowled by Shane Warne himself, he looked in control bowling with lot of zip. The one that got rid of Rohit Shrama was a perfect leg-break that pitched and spun away as the batsman missed it by a mile to be stumped. His last wicket was somehow representative of his glittering career where he has bamboozled the very best with vicious turn and drift.
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