Shane Warne is mining heroes by the truckloads in the Rajasthan desert. Keeping count of the match winners in the Rajasthan side is becoming increasingly difficult. On a day when it seemed that Shane Warne had run out of all his aces, the Royals unearthed another champ who grabbed his rare chance to perform with both hands. Welcome to the Shane Warne show of unending magic tricks. The latest act – Niraj Patel delivered what could be a killer blow to the semi-final hopes of Mumbai Indians.
Talking of blows, the partnership was reminiscent of Mohammed Ali’s ‘Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’ boxing style which was on view on ESPN. I switched over to watch Ali box when Patel and Jadeja were struggling initially. Just like the two of them Ali did little in the beginning. After watching Ali absorb punches and give his opponent a false sense of victory on ESPN for a while, I switched back to Set Max and watched Patel and Jadeja make an Ali-esque comeback and sting Mumbai like a bee.
Mumbai have every reason to feel gut wrenched. Just like the Punjab game, this one was in the bag with RR needing 43 off 18 on a wicket which had been low-scoring till then. They were numerous ‘only-ifs’ associated with the last ball and Mumbai will need all the strength of will and character to pick themselves up for the next game.
A load off Viru’s head
Delhi Daredevils are through to the semis and Virender Sehwag can get rid of the memory of the over he bowled against Punjab.
Mumbai almost joined a club every other team is a member of
Wicket-keepers have never had it as good as they have in the IPL. With the bat that is. Almost every team has had a match winning batting performance from their stumpers. Last night the Mumbai Indians and Yogesh Takawale almost joined the list which currently has KKR (Brendan McCullum) , RCB(Mark Boucher),CSK ( MS Dhoni), DD( Dinesh Karthik), KXP( Sangakkara) , DC ( Gilchrist) and RR ( Kamran Akmal). Mumbai’s entry based on Takawale’s cameo seemed such a ‘destined to be thing’ till we know what happened.
The day Superman met kryptonite
Shane Watson has all the physical attributes to play Superman on screen. His performance in the IPL has also been like a Superman who has won games with bat or ball depending on the need of the hour. Last night, Superman was reduced to a mortal being in both innings of the game. But he can afford to do that when he has the full assortment of super heroes for company
Rajasthan's embarrassment of riches
Teams have been happy to have one decent opening pair. Rajasthan have 4 quality openers who can combine to form 6 different opening pairs. The captain can randomly select two guys from the likes of Smith, Asnodkar, Pathan and Kamran Akmal and count on them to get the team off to a flier.
Dude of the Day - Sohail Tanvir is as deserving as Niraj Patel. But Tanvir's already got the Purple Cap and the MoM award for his efforts. Therefore, on a day when bowlers were on top for a change, Niraj Patel is our Dude of the Day.
Duds of the Day - All the experience in the Mumbai side which counted for nothing. In the heat of the battle a pair of greenhorns came through while the wily veterans floundered. The think tank of Sachin and Sanath erred by bowling Raje when Jayasuriya and Dwayne Smith were available. They should have remembered Dhawal Kulkarni's 15 run over which tilted the balance in Delhi’s' favour in the last game. And I haven’t mentioned Jayasuriya’s missed run-out chance off the last ball
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