da realbet： Shane Warne’s night was ruined by a shoddy batting performance from his team. But what a pleasure he was to watch. We must be grateful that he is still in our lives, however briefly
da dobrowin： Sambit Bal18-Apr-2009I have known no better sights in cricket than watching Shane Warne bowl. Watching VVS Laxman’s batting comes close; however, there are days when VVS may look a stranger, plodding and grafting like a pedant. But Warne is a joy even when he is being had.A lot of it comes from being a legspinner. They are enchanters. Sublime,magical, unpredictable, fallible, they possess an art that tugs at thesoul. Just as they can make your heart soar with joy, they can make you feeltheir pain. But even among these rare men, Warne is a man apart.Twenty20 is not his stage. The limited nature of the game constricts anddiminishes his craft. Legpsinners are meant to bowl like millionaires, withleisure and pomp. They are creatures of rhythm and the build-up for them isgradual. The first four or five overs, they are meant to feel their waythrough. Twenty20 allows them no fifth over – perhaps not even a second iftheir first doesn’t land right. Cameron White has had some success in thisform, but he is a legspinner only by definition, not in practice.This season, the odds were stacked even higher against Warne. Not only is hea year older, he is also far rustier, having played no competitive cricket since thelast IPL and, going by the practice match a few days earlier, hewas far from match-fit. But geniuses find a way to express themselves on thebig stage, and how Warne lifted his game.Three balls is all it took. The first three balls were short, butlength was growing fuller every ball and, by the fourth, Warne had foundhis mojo. When the fifth one left his hand, Virat Kohli sensed a four, butthe moment he left his crease he was a goner. The ball floated up in the air,inviting the charge, but when the batsman went down the pitch, he found agrand deception. The ball had drifted away and it had dipped. The batcreated an empty arc, and the ball found legstump. The next one nearly tookoff as it spun viciously past B Akhil’s hopeful prod.Rahul Dravid swept him away for four the next over and worked him away for acouple of singles, but the third over was sensational. It started with thelegspinner’s perfect ball: it drifted in, dipped in flight and spun from legto outside off. Beaten all ends up, Dravid looked up and nodded inappreciation. Good batsmen know a great ball when they see one. With thethird, out came the flipper: skidding, fast and on target, it found Akhil’spad even before the bat could make its way down. It looked plumb, but replaysshowed the umpire was right. The impact had been outside the offstump. Butthe next ball he was gone, dragged forward by the flight, deceived by thedip and defeated by the turn.Praveen Kumar managed to swat a straight six in the his last over, distortinghis figures somewhat, yet 4-0-18-2 wasn’t bad returns for a man who will turn 40 ina few months in a game that is supposed to be a young man’s game.In fact, the day belonged to the golden oldies. Dravid, so berated inthe first edition and stripped of the captaincy this year, played the inningsof the day, Sachin Tendulkar carried his bat and was Man of the Match in thefirst match and Anil Kumble finished the day with five wickets.Warne’s night was ruined by a shoddy batting performance from his team. Butwhat a pleasure he was to watch. We must be grateful that he is still in ourlives, however briefly.