Shane Warne’s first tantalising spell in the DLF-IPL III was chiefly responsible for the unexpected defeat of Deccan Chargers . His four-wicket haul took his tally to 10 wickets in as many matches.
Now second in the IPL bowling honours list — 43 wickets in 38 matches as against Rudra Pratap Singh’s 47 from 37 matches, Warne is all set to weave his magical spell in three home matches at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur.
With ten points in the kitty and four more games to play in the league, Warne is upbeat about advancing to the semi-finals, banking on the Rajasthan Royals’ nine wins out of 10 record at Jaipur.
Following his spellbinding feats and a collection of 1001 wickets for Australia in Tests and One-day internationals (703 in Tests and 293 in ODIs), Warne has been in the vanguard of promoting IPL and pleading for a clear window seven week long competition.
On Monday, he came up with another suggestion virtually asking the authorities for big boundary lines and a good wicket.
“One thing that has come out of this match is that bigger boundary lines will provide for a real contest between the bat and ball. I suppose the match against Chennai would be talked about with totals of 246 and 223 and sixes and fours. But this wicket (at Jamtha, Nagpur) had in it a bit of everything. There was a contest between the bat and ball rather than a flat road with tiny boundary lines. A total of 250 does not make a great game.
“The bigger boundary lines and a good wicket made a great game. The good players, Watson, Sharma and Gilly got the runs and I suppose the good bowlers got some wickets for an even contest. It will go down in the short history of the IPL as one of the great games. Anyone who came to the ground saw a fantastic game,” said Warne.
Clearly Warne is pleased with his bowling so far, but he is convinced that one does not have to really rip the ball for great leg spinners.
“In Twenty20 you have 24 balls to bowl and it’s all about the right ball at the right time. It’s not about the best ball. No point in bowling big ripping leg breaks. It’s all about setting up the batsman, bowling fast and slow and bringing in the variations. I am actually bowling well, but there are going to be games when it will be none for 40 for me. When I bowled perhaps one of the best breaks, Vijay hit it for a six. That’s the nature of Twenty20. Dwayne Smith’s top edge would have gone 20 rows back at Chennai, here he was out.”
Warne’s counterpart Adam Gilchrist said when you bowl leg spinners like Warne does, it can influence the game. “There’s no doubt that he’s a fine captain and fine leader of that team. In theory one should not lose ten wickets in 20 over games, but pressure and intensity do a lot of things to the minds of the players. Warne is the best leg spinner who has played the game. That was very much on display.”
Deccan Chargers are more likely to be placed in the lower half of the table at the end of the league matches. “Well, very quickly doing the maths I would say we have five games for a possible ten points and for a final tally. It’s tight and that might be good enough. We will watch with interest the other results. We cannot afford to lose another game, it’s as simple as that. Tonight there was improvement; the bowling effort was good, batting not too bad, but fell away a little bit. On reflection it was the fielding which cost us the match in the end. The reality is fielding too changes matches”, said Gilchrist.