Win toss, bat first is Warne’s plan

Jaipur: It’s an old story now that Rajasthan Royals went down without putting up a fight against Delhi Daredevils in their opening game in the DLF-IPL Twenty20 championship. Since then the Jaipur-based team has gone the extra mile and defeated Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad, and Royal Challengers, Bangalore.
With Rajasthan Royals scheduled to take on Kolkata Knight Riders next at home on Thursday, its skipper and coach Shane Warne underscored the contributions made by Graeme Smith, Shane Watson and a few Indian players in the last 10 days.Ahead of the pack
Warne said that his team was ahead of the pack on the tactical aspect and that the other teams were copying it now.
Warne revealed in advance that he would bat first should he win the toss. “They played on Tuesday night in Kolkata, are travelling the whole day on Wednesday and the match starts at 4 p.m. on Thursday when it would be boiling hot.
“It’s better to bat first and keep them on the field for ninety minutes. They have lost two on the trot and that must be hurting them. Now they are going to play on our turf. They are going to have new players, which again is going to be hard for them. But they (Brad Hodge and Salman Butt) can also be dangerous.
“We think we have got all bases covered. It’s all about doing the basics better than the opposition, sticking to plans and executing them very well.
“We are always coming up with new stuff. I don’t look at the odds. As a coaching group we are trying to get the best out of each player. I have been encouraging the players to be aggressive; attack, attack and attack is the slogan of our group.”
After the final practice session at the Future Cricket Academy, Warne repeated that Twenty20 could be anybody’s game. “There’s no set way. But we thought the best way to win games was to bowl first against Kings XI, Chargers and Challengers because we thought their bowling was not strong and that we could chase anything. It worked. We are having a meeting on Thursday and we have a spirited group to put up another good performance against Kolkata.”