Watson lifts Royals over Delhi
by Alex Livie, 11 May 2008
Rajasthan Royals moved clear at the top of the IPL table, but they made hard work of securing a three-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils.
The game swung both ways before Rajasthan got to their victory target of 157 with five balls remaining.
It looked like being an easy win for much of the game, but Farveez Maharoof took 27 off one Shane Warne over to enable Delhi to post a competitive total.
Shane Watson’s 74 off 40 balls took The Royals to the brink of victory, but he was run out in the penultimate over and it took Mahesh Rawat and Niraj Patel to limp over the line.
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The Royals are well set to secure a place in the top four, but Delhi have their work cut out to make it to the semi-finals.
Delhi made a solid start to their innings, with Virender Sehwag playing second fiddle to Gautham Gambhir.
Sehwag offered a simple catch to Mohammad Kaif off Shane Watson when he had made 17 and Shikhar Dhawan was run out following an awful mix-up shortly afterwards.
Gambhir did not atone for running out Dahwan, as he dragged on to Siddharth Trivedi having moved effortlessly onto 31.
AB de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik fell after building platforms and Delhi looked in real trouble until their Sri Lanka duo got together.
Tillakaratne Dilshan set the ball rolling but it was Maharoof who lit the blue touch-paper by clubbing Warne for 27 in an over to take his side to a respectable 156/7.
Warne gave a debut to Dimitri Mascarenhas and the only English player in the IPL survived a tough start to come back with two wickets in his final over to record figures of 2-29 in his 4 overs.
The Royals did not make the greatest start with the bat as both Yusuf Pathan and Kaif were involved with run-outs with Graeme Smith.
Smith struggled to find his stride, but he was bailed out by Watson who not for the first time led from the front.
Smith (24) was the only other man to make it into the teens, but such was Watson’s dominance after he had been dropped by Sehwag that it did not matter.
His 74 off 40 balls took the game beyond Delhi, but he fell in the penultimate over to a controversial run out.
The Australian was short of his ground, but umpire Steve Davis failed to call for the third umpire. This led to furious Delhi protests and the correct decision was eventually made.
Watson’s departure led to nervous faces on the Rajasthan bench, but fours in consecutive balls from Patel and Rawat saw them home.
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