Cricket News

Photos | All News

Familiar face, familiar result

Monday May 12, 03:10 AM

Midas ran the risk here of not turning it all into gold. But with Niraj Patel slamming a half-volley off the final ball of the penultimate over through covers to ease the mounting pressure, even the latest of Shane Warne's selections ensured a cent per cent record for him at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. Needing seven runs for a win against Delhi Daredevils from the last two overs, with wickets threatening to give away, Patel pounded Maharoof for that scorcher which set up the Royals's narrow three-wicket win in a late-night Sunday thriller.

Shane Watson had played his now-familiar meaty role for Jaipur, setting it up, but it was left to Patel and keeper Mahesh Rawat to finish things when Delhi went for the kill defending their score of 156-7. If Shane Warne's unfulfilled aspirations as an Australian captain have helped Jaipur find a leader of exceptional drive, Shane Watson's very many near-misses of the Baggy Green have meant that the talented all-rounder, donning the royal blue here, has been outperforming expectations that the Jaipur franchise had of him when they bought him for $125,000.

Watson's 40-ball 74 on Sunday was yet another in a series of gems he has played over the last month, with reprieves from Virender Sehwag and T Dilshan, in addition to the key wickets of Sehwag and Maharoof. Coming at two-down chasing 157, Watson remained unperturbed even as his team mates seemed to be suffering from recurring panic-pangs, lapsing into self-destruction.Yo Mahesh came in for special treatment, but Watson was equally punishing on the spinners, finding the boundary consistently to keep the target within limits here.

What had earlier stretched the Royals, though, was Delhi's ace-card Farveez Maharoof. Local legends are teeming with battles where the commanding general was famously felled, and the resulting panic paralysed his ranks of foot-soldiers. Four sixes off his one over would have been enough to rattle Warne's men, after their as yet unscathed leader got brutally clobbered by Maharoof-an IPL first for the leg-spinner. Rajasthan's pair of run-outs up front-Smith's anxious scurrying especially-surely indicated nervousness carried into the second innings from the first.

And true to another warfare truism, it took a camel to set the marauding-elephants helter-skelter. At six feet, Farveez Maharoof fits the bill, minus the hump. Also, so much has been made of Delhi's top-three that their middle and late batting order remained unaccounted for, as far as Warne's elephantine mind was concerned. It was no surprise then that the Sri Lankans (T Dilshan too) stunned with their late charge, smacking a flurry of sixes in the end overs.

Delhi Daredevils

Gambhir b Trivedi (23b, 4x4) 31

Sehwag c Kaif b Watson (20b, 2x4) 17

Dhawan run out (M Patel) (3b) 3

De Villiers c Warne b Mascarenhas (22b) 20

Karthik c Rawat b Mascarenhas (15b, 1x4) 13

Dilshan not out (15b, 1x4, 1x6) 18

Mishra b Trivedi (5b) 4

Maharoof c Patel b Watson (16b, 2x4, 4x6) 39

Yo Mahesh not out (1b) 0

Extras (b 1, lb 6, w 4) 11

Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 156