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Fri, 29 Aug 2008

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Warne's bag of tricks

Catching Gilly unawares

Scene: Match 9 of the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) between the Deccan Chargers and the Rajasthan Royals in Hyderabad.

Action: The Deccan Chargers lost the toss and were asked to take first strike. The captain, Adam Gilchrist, started proceedings off with a bang when he slammed Munaf Patel for three boundaries in the first over. Next over, VVS Laxman got stuck into Shane Watson, and the Chargers were off the mark in style.

In a surprise move, one which most captains wouldn't have dared to employ even in their dreams, Shane Warne introduced Yusuf Pathan into the attack. The Baroda all-rounder struck with his second delivery, when he foxed the former Australian stumper with his flight, drew him forward, only to miss the ball and get stumped by the wicketkeeper.

The Royals captain's out-of-the-box thinking meant that a dangerous looking Chargers' captain, so crucial to his team's fortunes, was dismissed in the third over of the innings and the blonde leg spinner had won the battle between two of Australia's finest cricketers.

Unleashing a little dynamite

Close to two weeks in the tournament, most teams had already identified trends, strengths and weaknesses of oppositions which they could use to succeed in the competition. One such trend was the need for the openers to fire at the top of the innings.

Scene: Match 18 of the IPL against the Kolkata Knight Riders

Venue: Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Action: In a surprise move, Shane Warne included little known Swapnil Asnodkar into the playing XI. Asnodkar hails from Goa and had a personal best of 37 in Twenty20 matches prior to this tie. Thrust into action straight away as he was asked to open the innings, Asnodkar caught the Knight Riders by surprise as he bulldozed his way to a 34-ball 60.

Warne had unveiled his little dynamite who would give his team good starts in each of their next four outings.

Yusuf Pathan vs David Hussey

David Hussey is the most experienced cricketer in the twenty-over format of the game, but Shane Warne, the Rajasthan Royals' captain, with only 12 Twenty20 matches behind him, pulled out yet another one of his tricks in the away tie against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Hussey was coming into this match with two failures behind him and must have been desperate to get among the runs once again. Taking note of this desperation, Shane Warne threw the ball to Yusuf Pathan, and that move paid off almost immediately. Hussey gave the spinner a charge in an attempt to hit him out of the ground, but missed the quicker one that Pathan dished out, and the ball would crash into his middle stump - Shane Warne had won the duel against his fellow Victorian.

'1' over spells

Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Shane Warne won the toss and inserted the Knight Riders in. The Knight Riders had their backs to the wall - faced with a scenario of having to win every one of their remaining four games to remain in contention for a place in the last four.

This time, his strategy was based around not giving the Knight Riders' batsmen any chance to settle against his bowlers - especially in the first six overs when the field restrictions were on.

The Royals' coach-cum-captain Shane Warne kept juggling his bowlers - Sohail Tanvir bowled the first over, Munaf Patel bowled the second - a wicket maiden, Shane Watson was introduced into the attack for the third over, Sohail Tanvir was brought back from the other end for the fourth, Munaf Patel replaced Watson for the fifth, while Watson bowled the fifth over from the end where Sohail Tanvir bowled the fourth over.

At the end of the first six overs, despite being faced against strikers like Salman Butt and Sourav Ganguly, the Royals had only conceded four boundaries - certainly not the start the Knight Riders would have wanted.

The same one-over ploy worked when Shane Warne brought on Siddharth Trivedi in the middle of the innings (15th over), and he successfully nailed the big fish - Sourav Ganguly, much to the delight of his captain.

Getting the right fields

The Rajasthan Royals took more than twenty minutes in addition to the stipulated eighty minutes to complete their quota of 20 overs. One of the prime reasons for this was Shane Warne being particular about the field he wanted - there were numerous occasions during the Knight Riders' innings when Warne would take time to get his fielders in exactly the position he wanted.

Such was the precision of Warne's placement of fielders that Sourav Ganguly, who was once referred to be the best player on the off side, struggled to get the ball past the fielders patrolling the off side. Ganguly's 34-ball stay at the wicket saw him pierce the off side field only for two boundaries, while nineteen other strokes played through the off side cost the Royals only 11 runs (9 deliveries were played straight to the hands of the fielder on the off side). On the leg side, Ganguly had seven scoring strokes, while five others, including the one of which he was dismissed, went straight to the hand of the fielders.