Back where they belong

Saturday May 10, 03:00 AM

Home is where the hearth is. Rajasthan Royals have turned the Sawai Man Singh Stadium into a full-blown burning pyre for their rivals. Visibly off-colour in their away game at Mumbai - which they lost in pathetic fashion - the table-topping team were back in Jaipur to defeat Deccan Chargers by eight wickets.

In a format that has teams sleepwalking out of suitcases, travelling from one blitz-corner to another - and how different can a cricket stadium or a hotel lobby get, really - the Royal Blues seem to have struck some sort of a magical equation with their home-turf, their fort appearing impregnable.

If the roaring team anthem Halla bol gets amplified in the low-walled playing stadium not quite creating the echoes, the playing track - never a shocker in its quality - seems to become one of Warne's allies when the Royals bowl here.

It took 61 runs and eight overs to trigger the hara-kiri in rival ranks on Friday, against an opposition boasting of batting-ammunition envied by all the other seven outfits - on paper at least.

But as captain Warne had snorted a day ago, "If they were the best, they wouldn't be scraping the bottom of the table." His bowlers too know the conditions here better than most. Even a gentle dust-storm blowing when Rajasthan batted conspired for the local boys, hampering catching of skiers.

"We lost to Mumbai because we didn't sum up the conditions too well. It's good to come home. To the same hotel room, your stadium, where you know the conditions and have won three-on-three," Warne had said before. He made it an enviable four-on-four on Friday.

Earlier, some smart bowling changes had ensured that Rajasthan made things happen for themselves. Munaf Patel bowled unchanged, sending back Gibbs in his third over, whileYusuf Pathan, once smacked for a six by Scott Styris, had him committing another aerial shot in the next over, the Kiwi's top-edge well judged by Warne. The Rajasthan skipper brought himself on early in the seventh over, sensing Gilchrist's intent, and by the time he was done, had finished with neat figures of 2-20, forcing a complete implosion and nipping in the bud the Afridi danger. The skipper's direct-hit later sent back the Chargers' lynchpin Rohit Sharma (5), who's had a fine run this IPL summer. 140-8 looked distinctly inadequate. When they came out to bat, all that the Royals needed was a steady head to overhaul that modest target. Graeme Smith also has formidable shoulders to go with that composed mind, and he had walked out with Yusuf Pathan, whose 68 off 37 ensured that the home team cruised with four overs to spare.

Rajasthan dropped Swapnil Asnodkar to accomodate Neeraj Patel today, but Yusuf Pathan filled in to open with his own stroke-filled 68 off 37 - the nine boundaries, two sixes ensuring there was never cause for worry.

They hardly looked troubled, feeling supremely at home.

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