05th April 2010 – Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur: ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man’ and Shane was the man for the Rajasthan Royals at Nagpur against Deccan Chargers (DC). Shane Warne’s splendid display of spin bowling rolled back the years as he simply outclassed not one, not two but four of the DC batsmen and ended with figures of 4-0-21-4! To add to this, his captaincy during the crunch situations was something that is beyond description. He kept the team spirits up throughout the game, motivated his players showed confidence in his players and he showed the world once again that form is temporary and class is permanent.
Chasing 160 to win, DC went into the last over as the favourites needing 6 runs of 6 balls and three wickets in hand. Siddharth Trivedi was entrusted the responsibility to bowl the last over. Two runs came of the first two balls of the over which included a wide. On the third ball Morne Morkel pulled out a blinder of a catch to dismiss RP Singh. Needing 4 runs in 3 balls, Rohit Sharma hit the ball to square leg and ran the first run and came back for the second while his partner Harmeet Singh was not interested in the second and was run out. With two balls to go DC were still the favourites needing just 3 runs off 2 balls but Trivedi held his nerve and foxed Rohit Sharma with a slower ball who hit it straight to Abhishek Raut who made no mistakes. RR’s bowling which was under pressure after a dismal performance in the last two games came up trumps in this game. All the RR bowlers bowled well at different stages of the game and made vital contributions. Yusuf Pathan had a lid on the DC openers at the beginning of the innings. Aditya Dole playing his first game of the tournament accounted for both the DC openers. Siddharth Trivedi and Morne Morkel were brilliant in the middle stages of the innings and Shane Warne was simply superb. His two wickets in the 17th over of the game was something that turned the game topsy-turvy.
Earlier in the day, Shane Warne won the toss and elected to bat first. RR slipped to 17 for 2 in the third over before a wonderful partnership between Faiz Fazal (36 runs, 29b, 4X4) and Shane Watson (58 runs, 36b, 3X3, 3X6) resurrected the innings with a 77- run stand. Shane Watson in particular was in brilliant form as he controlled the RR innings and at the same time scored the runs at a brisk pace. However, a middle order collapse meant that RR only managed to score 159 before being bowled out.
This fabulous performance has brought a new dawn of confidence into the RR camp. With this game Royals have maintained a legacy of a never-say-die spirit thereby etching another good memory in the minds of their fans for years to come. RR still has a huge task ahead and need to keep up the momentum in order to make it to the semi-finals. With the team peaking at the right time RR can only hope for better results in the forthcoming games. With this team performance RR has proved why they are the most loved team in the IPL. RR has what it takes to come from their lows and also hold their nerve in tough situations. This gives fans some memorable cricketing moments that they can cherish for years.
Match details:
Match: RR V DC
Date: 05th April, 2010
Venue: Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur
Toss: Rajasthan Royals, who chose to bat
MoM: Shane Warne
Breif scores:
RR – 159 all out – S Watson 58(36b, 3X4, 3X6), F Fazal 36(29b, 4X4) RP Singh 4-0-17-3
RR – 157 all out – R Sharma 73(44b, 8X4, 2X6) A Gilchrist 34(17b, 3X4, 3X6) S Warne 4-0-21-4
Result: RR won by 2 runs.