Rajasthan Royals Triumph In Thrilling 2008 IPL Final Against CSK
Rajasthan Royals emerged victorious as the undisputed champions in a nerve-wracking finish against Chennai Super Kings in the inaugural season of IPL 2008.
Either by knockout or league, there was only one victor. It made sense that the team with the best record in the competition maintained composure to win a thrilling match.
Chennai Super Kings 163 for 5 (Raina 43, Yusuf 3-22) lost to Rajasthan Royals 164 for 7 (Yusuf 56) by three wickets.
Either by knockout or league, there was only one victor. It was only fitting that the team with the best record in the competition maintained composure to win a thrilling match. The Rajasthan Royals‘ dug-out saw some wild celebrations as Sohail Tanvir calmly swatted the final ball when it was needed. The Chennai Super Kings had used all of their reserves to force a draw. The team with the lowest cost in the league had pulled off the upset, winning 13 out of 16 games.
Even though the IPL featured a galaxy of foreign players, India’s most improved domestic player stole the show in the thrilling finale at DY Patil Stadium. Before this event, few people outside of India may have heard of Yusuf Pathan, but he made an impression on the world stage by taking three wickets and hitting a brilliant 56 to create the stage for the inspirational Shane Warne to win the last-ball thriller.
The somewhat two-paced surface made it difficult to chase 164, and Rajasthan was reeling at 42 for 3, but Yusuf and Shane Watson’s 65-run partnership gave them the momentum they needed. They were in a position after another mini-collapse, but Warne and Tanvir scored 21 in a thrilling last leg. Though the batsmen made sure they didn’t lose their heads, Chennai’s careless fielding didn’t help.
With eight required off the last over, L Balaji was brought on after taking a hammering in the opening three overs. A costly wide that resulted in a bye tipped the scales after three tight deliveries built up pressure. Tanvir raced two balls to deep midwicket with three needed from two balls, then secured the victory with the last ball. With the bat, the tournament’s greatest bowler performed a great service to his team. Warne’s powerful hug conveyed a lot.
Yusuf’s fortunate fifty was a ballistic one that laid the foundation. Chennai will be sorry for the opportunity they lost in the eleventh over when Yusuf attempted to loft Muttiah Muralitharan. However, one of India’s top fielders, Suresh Raina, was unable to get a grip on the skier when he raced from mid-on. That might have been a major setback because the asking rate was getting close to 10. In the next over, though, Murali was hit for two consecutive sixes over wide long-on, and there were no solutions for him.
Before long, Yusuf was beating Balaji, retreated, and rained thunderbolts down the side. He appeared more like a seasoned fighter used to high-stress circumstances. He appeared to be winning the match handily, but Raina’s precise dart toss from the gully gave a further twist.
Yusuf also played a crucial role with the ball. With his quick offbreaks, he held Chennai back just when they seemed to be forming alliances. Albie Morkel top-edged towards short fine leg, Parthiv Patel snuck to the wicketkeeper, and S Vidyut holed out to deep midwicket. He was the most economical bowler as well as the most effective, demonstrating the capacity to step up his game when it mattered most.
Chennai wasn’t significantly outmatched. With a slow outfield to contend with and an effective bowling assault, they managed to put together a respectable score. The pair that led them to victory the previous evening, Raina and Parthiv, put on a valuable 25-run stand by accumulating runs rather than attacking, making sure that the groundwork for the remainder of the order was created.
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The innings gained some bounce after Morkel’s two sixes, but Raina and Dhoni raised the stakes. The choice to send Chamara Kapugedera ahead of S Badrinath might have come at a cost. After Kapugedera toyed with the ball for a 12-ball 8, it was up to Dhoni to accelerate the pace.
Watson bowled the 17th over, which looked to tip the scales at three wickets conceded, but Dhoni smashed a few big blows to take them to 163. For a few hours, it was the largest total ever at DY Patil Stadium.
Yusuf Pathan Delivered One Of The Greatest Final Performances Ever
A tale involving Yusuf Pathan and Shane Warne at the Rajasthan Royals is related by Harsha Bhogle. In the first IPL, Warne had assigned Pathan a specific task: to “take ’em on” and “dominate the start of the innings”. There’s a good possibility you won’t succeed if you try your hardest to meet that kind of brief. Even after thirteen years, many batters still find it difficult to accept.
One night after one of these inevitable setbacks, Pathan sat in his hotel room wallowing, kicking himself over a loss. A tap on the door reached his ear. It was Warne, his captain. Warne remarked, “Mate, one man doesn’t lose a game.” “The group snaps. Rest well and don’t worry.”
But can one individual win a game? Based on the evidence from the final later that year, it would seem so.
In 2008, cricket was only just beginning to join the T20 and data analysis age, cautiously but confidently. However, the majority of the research at the time was technical in nature, using split screens, footage from matches, and nets, among other sources. There was not a comprehensive database available for match-ups or much else.
When we look back, this is what we know. Pathan scored the quickest in the IPL, at 10.58 runs per over, out of all players who faced at least 80 balls in the middle overs. He opened both the tournament and his T20 career. While his powerplay average of 9.45 runs per over was not to be laughed at, he also averaged 80 in the middle overs versus 28.75 against the new ball. He began to play in the middle order toward the middle of the tournament, and in that phase, he faced 136 balls as opposed to 73 during the powerplay.
Pathan scored the fastest, at 12.82 an over, among those who faced at least 50 balls of spin. It’s not as though he was hindered by the pace, to reiterate. Even though he only averaged half of the 62 he scored against spin, in the first ten balls he hit the fast bowlers at a rate of 10 an over. He didn’t take long to become used to things and didn’t take his time either.
He bowled at a 7.36 average against left-handers and a 9.96 average against right-handers. He only bowled 59 balls to right-handers compared to 110 balls to left-handers.
It’s well known that Warne stole nicknames from professional wrestling when he was a member of the Royals. “The Blaster” Pathan’s declared function, other from controlling the bowling, was to bowl stump to stump. This may not seem like cutting edge work by today’s standards, but Warne’s cricketing intellect required minimal information to effectively utilize Pathan.
Pathan bowled 110 balls to left-hand batters in the final, 23 of which were to batters on the left; only one ball was to a batter on the right. The Chennai Super Kings were outmanoeuvred by Warne and Pathan, who made no attempt to impede the Royals. At the top of the CSK batting order were four left-handers and three right-handers.
Pathan kept bowling stump to stump as part of his plan. S Vidyut, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, and Albie Morkel were all handcuffed by the slow pace. The wickets were taken by the faster, flatter deliveries. By the time he finished his four overs, the Super Kings were 97 for 3. Only two boundaries had been hit.
But Pathan’s more significant contribution of the game ended up coming from his bat. When he arrived in the seventh over, the Royals were trailing 164 runs at 42 for 3, and they still had to deal with Muttiah Muralitharan, one of the most economical bowlers in the competition.
It proved to be Pathan’s most restrained bat-work of the tournament, indicating how challenging the surface was. In the first nine balls he faced, he failed to hit a boundary and only made one attempt. He was dropped off Murali when he attacked L Balaji, smashing him for two fours in the tenth over. He had the Royals requiring 75 off 45 at 21 off 23 balls.
The storm you had been feeling for a while then arrived. Just now, Pathan charged at Murali, but all he could do was squirt the ball to the off side. But now he was accurate with his footwork and he hit consecutive sixes.
It was the second most costly over that Murali bowled in the competition out of 58 total. Returning to claim the eventual Player of the Tournament, Shane Watson, Pathan hammered him for another six before he could finish, and he defeated Balaji once more, leaving Warne and Sohail Tanvir with a very easy assignment.
Pathan’s impact was ranked by the Stats metric at 146.8, more than twice as high as the next-best Royals player’s contribution. Pathan delivered a performance that would only be surpassed in two of the 12 finals that have since taken place in the history of the most competitive and famous T20 event in the world. That was not a night of pouting.
