Having won all their previous matches, the Chennai side looked invulnerable till Friday night when Delhi Daredevils duo of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir tore them apart, much to the delight of the Rajasthan Royals.
Since their first match defeat against the Daredevils, Rajasthan Royals' graph has shot upwards and fresh from their win against Kolkata Knight Riders, Warne's men are ready to come hard on the depleted Chennai side.
"We don't want to be the fourth team in the semifinal. We are looking for fifth win and one more will place us comfortable. Then we would like to carry on for as many more wins as possible. Our aim is to remain at the top," said Darren Berry, coaching director of the Rajasthan Royals.
The hosts have the resources and strategy to realise their dreams and their strategy of surprising the opponents has paid rich dividends too. Asking Swapnil Asnodker to open the innings against Kolkata Knight Riders was such a ploy that paid off well.
South African Graeme Smith has added to the batting depth, while Shane Watson has proved to a fine investment. With Yousuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja lending excellent support, the hosts' batting looks compact.
The bowling department does not look bad either. Apart from Warne who has always been threat to every batsmen, pacers Watson, Munaf Patel, Sohail Tanveer and Sidhartha Trivedi have proved that they have the variations to keep batsmen guessing.
The support in bowling comes in shape of Pathan, Dinesh Salunkhe and Jadeja who have been used as surprise package by their shrewd skipper.
In fact, the going for Rajasthan Royals has been so smooth that the only England player in IPL and Twenty20 specialist Dimitri Mascarenhas could not be accommodated in the scheme of things despite the fact that he is rated very highly by former Hampshire team mate and skipper Warne.
On the other hand, Chennai Super Kings now need to bounce back after tasting their first defeat. They have been dented by departure of Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey and Jacob Oram even though Kiwi Stephen Fleming is expected to bolster their batting lineup, while Dhoni's mere presence is enough to intimidate the bowlers.
Their bowling attack boasts of names like Makhya Ntini and Muttiah Muralitharan and though they could not rein in the the Sehwag-Gambhir duo on Friday night, they would be eager to put behind the setback when they take to the field on Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment