By IANS,
Mumbai : Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne Friday lauded his team for “perfect execution” of their plans to rout Delhi Daredevils in the semi-final and urged them to produce one last such performance in the final of the Indian Premier League on Sunday.
“It was exceptional the way the guys responded. Everything went right for us. We executed the plans very well. It was like a perfect game for us,” an ecstatic Warne said after beating Delhi by 105 runs at the Wankhede Stadium Friday night.
“We had some plans for this match and they have come off well,” he added.
Rajasthan Royals were given no chance by critics at the start of the IPL tournament. After they showed fire in the initial stages, the underdog tag was attached to them but it did not stay long and soon they found themselves among the favourites to win the inaugural IPL. And led-by a shrewd captain in Warne, they have certainly lived up to the billing.
“Intensity has been one thing that we have showed right through the tournament. Everybody has chipped in with contributions and have played their role,” Warne said.
Warne was all praise for key all-rounder Shane Watson who has delivered in crunch moments of the game, and Friday again shouldered the responsibility to script a clinical win for his team.
“Watson is a class player and he came up with excellent performance with bat and ball throughout the tournament. Munaf too bowled beautifully tonight,” Warne said.
Asked whether there is any room for improvement before the final, Warne, who always believes in pushing the boundary, said: “We could have added a few more runs and there can be improvement in the fielding as well.”
Daredevils skipper Virender Sehwag said that they were beaten by a better side.
“I thought 160-170 was a chaseable target on this track. Shane Watson and Graeme Smith batted well and then Yusuf Pathan played a strokeful innings to set a challenging score. We had to get off to a good start but we kept on losing wickets.”
Man of the match Shane Watson said he took his time to read the wicket and then played his shots.
“I got used to the pace of the wicket and used it to my favour. We had to attack since we were batting first and you never know what sort of a total is safe. The wicket had a bit of bounce and it helped me in the bowling.”
“It is an amazing run for me in IPL. There have been few ups and downs but it has been great,” Watson said.