Warne disappointed with Royals' effort against Chennai

Catches win matches, they say, and no one knew it better yesterday than Shane Warne

Catches win matches, they say, and no one knew it better yesterday than Shane Warne.

The Rajasthan Royals captain, while blaming his batsmen for failing to post a formidable total in favourable conditions, rued the poor effort on the field by his team that led to an eight-wicket loss to Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.


A visibly disappointed Rajasthan Royals' captain Shane Warne after his
team's eight-wicket loss to the Chennai Super Kings in an IPL match at
theu00a0 MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai yesterday. pics/AFP

"We could have made up for it (batting collapse) in the field, but we made a couple of errors there too. We did some really silly things, gave away at least nine or 10 runs in a couple of overs. That was not called for when defending just 147," added the 41-year old.

Electing to bat, Royals were comfortably placed at 86-0 at the halfway stage, but finished up at 147-6, a total that proved insufficient against the explosive duo of Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina.

Warne cited the fantastic caught-and-bowled effort by host spinner Shadab Jakati to remove Shane Watson as the turning point of the match.

"If Watson had stayed for a couple of more overs, we could have done a better job. Jakati's caught and bowled was probably the turning point of the game," he said.
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"It was a very good catch, he absolutely creamed it. That was the big turning point of the match because we know what Watson can do. It was probably the game changer," said the Victorian.

Hussey (79 no) and Raina (61) added 137 runs for the second-wicket to help the defending champions romp to their fifth consecutive home win, and fourth consecutive overall.

Warne blamed his batsmen for squandering the start given by openers Rahul Dravid (66) and Watson (32).
"I said it at the toss that it was a 160-170 type wicket. I thought it was a very good batting surface - running away to 86-0 in 10 overs. Even if we had scored just run-a-ball in the last ten, we would have got at least 160.

"I was extremely disappointed," the Australian spin legend said.

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