Royals do it in style

At the end of an exhilarating evening, the 25,000-crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium walked out in silence. Symonds stood staring at the moths, and past the moths a gallery full of grieving spectators.

Until the last over of the day, he had been their hero, the batsman who mercilessly exploited Rajasthan8217;s weak bowling to take them past 200 for the first time in the tournament.

But in that last over that he bowled, it all fell apart. The Royals, needing 14 runs off four balls, turned to Shane Warne, their captain-cum-coach. The veteran stepped up to the plate and hammered 16 off Symonds8217;s off-spin 8212; one four followed by two sixes. Game over.

Earlier, the Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to field first, and a lot was expected of the Aussie duo of Gilchrist and Symonds. The right-hander started cautiously, preferring not to take on Warne on a wicket that didn8217;t really help the leggie.

But he was ruthless once he got going 8212; most of his runs coming off neat hits in the V after making some room for himself. At the other end, Rohit Sharma gave him good company as the Chargers reached 214, which looked like a match-winning total.

But the Royals stayed in the hunt as the top-order flourished. Graeme Smith and Yusuf Pathan smashed half-centuries before Kaif8217;s little cameo brought the Royals closer to the target.

Pathan8217;s fifty came off just 21 deliveries, including six sixes. But in the end, it came down to Warne 8212; who had walked in with the Royals at 186-4. At that point, a victory looked improbable and when two further wickets fell, the scales had tilted firmly in Hyderabad8217;s favour.

Even IPL commissioner Lalit Modi couldn8217;t stop himself from dancing to the loud music that erupted following the victory. Cricket, as we8217;ve been told time and again, is a game of glorious uncertainties. And Thursday8217;s thriller was good advertisement for the game8217;s shortest format.