Indore, May 14: Shane Warne was absolutely distraught as Rajasthan Royals were walloped by the Kochi Tuskers Kerala at Indore. After being dismissed for 97, the Royals bowled miserably as KTK finished the game off in mere 7.2 overs. In his post-match interaction with the media, Warne was unequivocal in his admission that he was disappointed by the lack of fight shown by his team tonight.
On the reason behind the loss
I’m not sure. I’ve been the captain and coach of the Royals for four years and it’s very disappointing to put up our worst performance in this season. It was such a crunch game and we still had a chance to go further in the tournament. We all knew it was a 180-200 run wicket and we didn’t even cross 100. Our batting hasn’t fired consistently in the tournament and in T20 if the batsmen don’t score runs, it gets very hard for the bowlers.
On making six changes in the playing XI
We wanted to rest Johan Botha and Ross Taylor and give a chance to Jacob Oram, who can hit big sixes in the end and is also a fine bowler. Among domestic players we wanted to give a chance to the likes of Ankeet Chavan, Nayan Doshi and also the new wicketkeeper Pinal Shah, who was doing very well in practice. Unfortunately the guys didn’t put up a good performance.
On his four years with the Rajasthan Royals
I’ve been very lucky to be with a wonderful group of guys at the Royals. It will be sad to leave, not only the IPL but the game of cricket in itself. I have only one game to go before my 23 years of career – including first-class, international and club cricket – comes to an end. Leaving on such a note, losing our last four games so badly is even more disappointing. But all said and done, I’ll have fun memories of the IPL and of everyone I’ve played with and against here. I’m sad to leave but am looking forward to the rest of my life.
On RR’s batting collapse on the flat batting track
It was a perfect batting track and we were probably 100-110 runs short. As I said earlier, our batting has let us down right through the tournament, with the exception of perhaps Johan Botha, who did a pretty good job after being promoted up the order.
On whether RR struggle outside of their home ground
Well, that’s what you think. But I think most of the teams have done better at home than away. Yes, this year our record on the road has been very poor but in T20s you can have games like that. There’s no disgrace in losing if we’re outplayed but the way we’ve lost these last four games has been very disappointing.
On Shane Watson not opening the batting
Watson’s been opening the batting for the most of the tournament and by his own admission he hasn’t done as well as he’d have liked to. We had Rahul Dravid up front with the young Faiz Fazal, who’s a fine batsman. Fazal had the licence to go all out and even if he got out there was Watson to follow. But unfortunately in the first six overs we lost three wickets and that’s where we probably lost the game.
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