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The Rajasthan Royals may have bulldozed the Delhi Daredevils in Friday night’s lop-sided semi-final but victorious captain Shane Warne thunders his team can play even better and that would be on display in the final of the Indian Premier League.
"Some day your tactics come off. The players were up for it and you could tell that from our intensity on the field. It was still not our best game and I hope we have saved it for the final," Warne said after leading his side to a thumping 105-run win against Virender Sehwag's Daredevils.
Now that the side has booked its final berth, Warne does not care who he faces on Sunday. "Whoever we play, we would play our best. We have been the best team in the tournament so far and I'm confident we would do well in the final," Warne said, almost in a veiled threat.
His opposite number Virender Sehwag, for the first time, admitted the brittle middle order could not live up to the expectation and the Daredevils paid the price for their over-reliance on the top three.
"The middle order has let me down. They have not clicked in the past few matches and it's not easy for the top three batsmen to go out and perform in every game," he rued.
"The match was never in our hands today. After the first three overs, (Swapnil) Asnodkar and (Graeme) Smith took the game away from us. Perhaps if we had batted well, we could have consoled ourselves that at least we tried. But we did not even do that," he said.
Warne thoroughly enjoyed the backing of the crowd at the Wankhede Stadium and the showman took a bow at them after the match.
"I'm very happy with the crowd. Mumbai understands its cricket and reminded me of New South Wales or Sydney. They were right behind us in this match. There is perhaps a rivalry between Mumbai and Delhi, which helped us tonight."
Warne also showered praise on compatriot and Man of the Match Shane Watson who was instrumental behind Rajasthan's win with his sterling all-round display.
"Throughout the series he has been superb. He lost a bit of the edge in the last few games but today he was absolutely fantastic and showed his class. He's a fantastic all-round cricket and good enough to be in the Australian team.
"Watson stays injury-free which is good and he can easily be one of...
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