It was the last competitive game of cricket that Shane Warne ever played. And it was the other Shane, Watson, who stole the thunder and provided Warne a perfect send-off, coming up with a one-man show in a 10-wicket rout of the Mumbai Indians in the 66th game of the Indian Premier League.
It was a poor batting display by the Mumbai Indians, which pegged them back in the first place. And then, they came up against a rampaging Watson, who made it look like it was one of those days in Bangladesh where he had smacked a record century recently. The boundaries flowed like free wine and the end result was that the target of 134 was achieved in 13.1 overs – making it a one-sided game in every sense of the word.
When the Mumbai Indians batted, it had looked like the pitch had a lot on it for the spinners. Unknown left-arm spinner Ankeet Chavan got the ball to spin on more than a couple of occasions and even had Sachin Tendulkar almost out, lbw, on two separate occasions. The umpire failed to concur on both occasions and but it did not help Tendulkar much as he limped to a 35-ball 31.
It was only in the middle overs that Rohit Sharma managed to get something going for himself, making a 47-ball 58 in an innings of much grace, but without too much support at the other end, the Mumbai Indians could never get out of the stupor and scored only 133. Watson was the star with the ball as well and ended on 133/5 in their 20 overs.
However, once Watson got his first boundary off the first ball of the innings, there was no looking back. He smacked Harbhajan Singh for two sixes in the first over that he bowled before taking Lasith Malinga on for a couple of boundaries as well. Malinga’s second over went for 15 runs as they ended their sixth over on 52/0.
If one thought that the end of the Powerplay overs would assist the Mumbai Indians, they were in for a rude shock. It only helped Watson in accelerating towards the target, with Watson sparing none of the bowlers in his 47-ball 89. Rahul Dravid, his opening partner remaining not-out on 43 as the win was obtained in the 14th over.
What this loss has done is to push Mumbai Indians into a corner from where the only way to get out is to win their last game against the Kolkata Knight Riders. They have 16 points in their 13 games and will be challenged if Punjab win their last game against the Deccan Chargers. On the other hand, if Punjab lose, Mumbai are through irrespective of whatever happens, but the big question is that of momentum and with three losses in a row, the Mumbai Indians are struggling to get the momentum.