May 28th, 2008 
krishna
Rajasthan Royals have emerged as one of the strongest cricket team in the ongoing Indian Premier League. There is not any star cricketer accept Shane Warne and Graeme Smith Prior to the matches the team was being considered to be the weakest team in the IPL This became evident when they lost their first match to Delhi Dare Devils. But they defeated the Kings XI Punjab in the next game and have won the next five matches in a row. They have lost only two games out of thirteen and and have reached the semifinals with highest point tally of 22.
Team is owned by UK based company Emerging Media Its franchise was acquire by the group for $67million, was the lowest bidding price for any team. Shane Warne is the captain and coach of the team. It is the only team in the IPL having a foreigner captain.
Warne’s magic is working well as they have kept their winning streak on, accept some debacles in. Captaincy is being praised by all. His aggressiveness has inspired all the players to perform at their best..They have played in a very disciplined manner whether it is the bowling department or the batting department throughout whole of the series. This all has happened under the guidance and leadership of Shane Warne. His crafty tactics have worked a lot in their favour.
In the last game they dashed the Mumbai Indians’ hopes of semifinal by scoring a spectacular last ball win over them. The team needed 15 runs in the final over and they won it by scoring two runs off the last ball and also have kept their winning streak on.
Chasing the target of 146, Rajasthan Royals had lost five wickets till the end of the 12th over for just 77 runs .When Kamran Akmal (18), Swapnil Asnodkar (17), Shane Watson (18) and Mohammad Kaif (12), all failed, it were Ravindra Jadeja (23 not out) and Niraj Patel (40 not out) who then, bailed the team out of the crisis .They both not only scored required 69 runs but also preserved their unbeaten record at home.
Sidddharth Trivedi kept, both the Mumbai Indians’ openers, Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya, under control and Sohail Tanvir forced the visiting middle and lower order to dance to his tunes. Both the openers could score only 60 runs from the first 10 overs. Their disciplined bowling attack lead by Sohail Tanvir (4 for 14) and Sidddharth Trivedi (2 for 31) restricted the Mumbai Indians to the score of 145 for 7.
Although the Royals team is lacking quality batsmen as compared to the other IPL teams their determination to win, disciplined performance whether it is balling or batting ,and the aggressive captaincy have proved the cricket pundits wrong who had considered it the weakest team in the earlier stages of the IPL.
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