The Rajasthan Royals entered the second edition of the Indian Premier League as the defending champions and also had a decent run in the tournament if not for some ups and downs, one of them being the collapse of their batting line up for the lowest total of the tournament when they were bowled out for a partly score of just 58 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Entering the tournament as the defending champions, as the tournament progressed, they were not even the team to beat and likewise didn't even make it to the last four of the series. However, yesterday's win over Middlesex team in the British Asian cup at Lord's.
It was indeed a good show by Shane Warne and his team that included the likes of Sohail Tanvir who was not available for the second edition of the Indian Premier League held at South Africa earlier this year. In the T20 format 0f the game of cricket, it is evident from most of the matches that there can be one good or bad over that can change the fortunes of the match. And this match was no exception either. It was the 32 runs that Dimitri Mascarenhas scored towards the end of the Rajasthan Royals' innings at a strike rate of 200.0 that made a difference for the Royals.
It was as good as that the Rajasthan Royals who were equipped with star international players like Shane Warne, Sohail Tanvir, Justin Langer and others were facing the minnow team in Middlesex who were having just a bunch of eleven players, majority of whom have an experience of playing just domestic tournaments. With most of the English international players playing for the coming Ashes, hardly any international player could be seen in the Middlesex squad and some relief for the Middlesex team was in the form of Murali Karthik and Owasis Shah who atleast could be of some international standards.
However, if the scorecard is given a look, Murali Karthik had a decent run when he returned up with figures of 1/18 from his allotted 4 overs. But, with regards to Shah's performance, there was nothing different from other domestic cricketers who could do just that. This I guess should be a welcome victory for the Rajasthan Royals who had upset their fans by not even making it to the semi finals of the second edition of the Indian Premier League. One must consoder the Rajasthan Royals to be lucky enough for having a series eith just one match to go, winning which would see them emerge as champions irrespective of anything else.
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