Watson gives Warne a winning farewell

The night that was meant to belong to spin legend Shane Warne eventually folded up as a live tutorial on how to play Lasith Malinga. The teacher was Shane Watson, who helped Royals crush Mumbai Indians

The night that was meant to belong to Shane Warne eventually folded up as a live tutorial on how to play Lasith Malinga. The teacher was Shane Watson.

Chasing 134 on what appeared a slow surface, especially when Johan Botha landed it right to cause dust to puff out, Watson decimated Malinga and the rest of Mumbai's attack, taking the Royals home with 42 balls to spare.

Rajasthan Royals' Shane Watson clouts one on the leg-side against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium yesterday

Against Malinga, Watson smashed 36 off 17 balls including three sixes and four boundaries.

Having hit Harbhajan Singh out of the attack with two lusty sixes, Watson targeted Malinga's natural out-swinging angle by standing a few inches outside leg-stump.u00a0

When Malinga bowled it slow and full, Watson cleared the long-off boundary with ease. The initial adjustment he had made negated any footwork, it was stand-and-deliver stuff by Watson, and would have made Virender Sehwag proud.
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In his second over, Malinga banged it short on four occasions, and even struck Watson on his helmet once. But that didn't stop Watson from hooking with authority, picking up three more boundaries.

At this time, Harbhajan returned to the attack only to concede three consecutive boundaries. At the other end, Rahul Dravid brought all his experience into play by picking up the singles.

The duo brought up its 100-run stand when Dravid stamped his class on proceedings with a trademark flick. Even Kieron Pollard who varied his pace and length quite frequently bore the brunt of Watson.

In the 13th over with Royals needing just 14, Malinga returned with a slower ball, and was welcomed with a monstrous six over long on by Watson.

Lasith Malinga

After hitting the six, Watson flashed his bat to the opposition, throwing further light on his destructive mood.
Dravid, who remained unbeaten on 43, hailed Watson's knock.

"It's easy to bat at the other end when someone is going like that. It was a special effort. I have never seen anyone play Malinga like that. I am glad we are signing off with a win," said the former India captain after the game.

Earlier, a flourishing stand between Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar threatened to take game away from Royals, but smart captaincy and hostile fielding in the inner circle kept Mumbai on their toes.

When Tendulkar improvised to steer an Amit Singh delivery down the fine leg boundary, Warne immediately dropped short third man back and asked Singh to bowl short again. The plan worked.

Warne was on the button with his captaincy. A fitting farewell for the legend.

scoreboard

Mumbai Indians
T Suman c Menaria b Watson 5 Tendulkar c Watson b Singh 31 A Rayudu c Taylor b Watson 2
R Sharma st Shah b Warne 58 K Pollard b Watson 20
J Franklin not out 11
Harbhajan Singh not out 1 Extras: (Lb2, W3) 5.
Total: (for five wickets in 20 overs) 133.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-17, 3-65, 4-118, 5-131.
Bowling:
Ankeet Chavan 4-0-17-0,
Shane Watson 4-0-19-3, Siddharth Trivedi 1-0-9-0, Shane Warne 4-0-30-1,
Johan Botha 4-0-24-0,
Amit Singh 2-0-20-1,
Ashok Menaria 1-0-12-0.

Rajasthan Royals
Shane Watson not out 89
Rahul Dravid not out 43.
Extras: (W2) 2.
Total: (for no loss in 13.1 overs) 134.
Bowling:
Munaf Patel 3-0-23-0, Harbhajan Singh 2-0-27-0, Lasith Malinga 4-0-42-0, Dhawal Kulkarni 2-0-19-0, Kieron Pollard 2-0-19-0,
James Franklin 0.1-0-4-0.

Result: Rajasthan Royals won by 10 wickets
Man of the match: Shane Watson (Rajasthan Royals)
Umpires: R Koertzen (South Africa) and PR Reiffel (Australia)
Match referee: Javagal Srinath

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