RR beat MI, Warne quits on wining note

Shane Watson played an electrifying innings of 89 runs to help his side Rajasthan Royals (RR) defeat Mumbai Indians (MI) by ten wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Friday night.

Batting first, Mumbai Indians score of 133 runs for the loss of five wickets, Rajasthan Royals reached the winning score of 134 runs without losing a single wicket in just 13.1 overs.

Shane Watson single handedly destroyed the Mumbai Indians bowlers with his powerful shots.

He hit a quick fire 89 runs from 47 deliveries, hitting six over boundaries and nine boundaries with his long handle.

He fired two back to back sixers to spinner Harbhajan Singh in the initial stage of the RR innings, showing clearly his intentions of hammering the ball outside the stadium.

He was given good support on the other end by former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid.

Rahul made unbeaten 43 runs from 32 deliveries, holding the other end while Watson threw the ball outside the park.

RR reached the winning target of 134 runs without losing a single wicket.

Earlier, Mumbai Indians scored 133 runs for the loss of five wickets with RG Sharma scoring 58 runs with the bat.

SR Tendulkar scored 31 runs in the match, hitting three boundaries in the match.

It was an emotional day in world cricket with legendary spinner and Rajasthan Royal skipper Shane Warne playing the last match of his cricketing career here on Friday.

The RR players gave the Australian legend a ‘guard of honour’ as he stepped on the cricketing field for the last time.

Even the crowd gathered at the Wankhede Stadium gave him a standing ovation as the IPL wining captain came out on the field for the last time with his team.

Warne picked up one wicket by giving away 30 runs in this match against his arch rival Sachin Tendulkar’s team.

However, Warne had retired from international cricket in 2007 after dominating the crickeitng field for a long period of time with his magical bowling spells.

He had picked up 708 Test wickets and 293 One Day International wickets in his remarkable cricketing career that spanned from 1992 to 2007.

Controversy has always been a part of his life and the fourth edition of the game was no different as he was fined USD 50,000 by the Indian Premier League (IPL) disciplinary procedure commission for publicly criticising Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) secretary Sanjay Dixit after a match.

It was under the leadership of Warne that RR had become the champions in the first edition of the Indian Premier League.