Warne says team showed intensity; Jayawardene blames poor batting

Shane Warne led from the front to help Rajasthan Royals beat Kochi Tuskers Kerala by eight wickets, here, on Sunday.

Speaking in the post-match presentation ceremony, Warne said his team showed character to bounce back in emphatic style. With Sunday’s win the Royals are second in the IPL points table.

The following are excerpts

Shane Warne (Man of the Match): I thought our intensity today (Sunday) was quite good. We were right there from ball one and as I said, we have had a few honest chats and a bit of restructuring and things like that… We have a good record at home and the boys showed character to come back and play the way they did. It’s a very satisfying win… There is a great feeling in our group. There were hiccups on the road when we failed to get a few things right and failed to play as well as we would have liked. But I feel we have bounced back today in a pretty emphatic style. (Johan) Botha and myself worked very well on this track… Each game is different, but today we were spot on. (Shane) Watson is such a super player… He’s arguably the best player in the world at the moment in any form of the game. He is very destructive, knows his game well and with his bowling just lifts his all-round performance. He is very handy to have in the team.

We don’t look too much into the table (being No.2 after Sunday’s win). The tournament is just half way through, but it’s important to keep those victories up there to maintain the momentum.

Mahela Jayawardene: We knew it would be a tough task to defend that total (109) with the dew at the end. We needed another 20-30 runs to give them a go, but we didn’t bat well and failed to bowl well upfront. We needed early wickets and not give them the momentum. But Rahul (Dravid) batted really well and the experience showed and they just carried themselves through… The dropped catches didn’t help us either and it wasn’t a good day for us in the park. After the start we had, I thought 120 or 130 would be a good score. But we didn’t execute that game plan quite well.

Shane Watson: I thought I was in good form today. I was a little scratchy to start with, but it was nice to get a few big boundaries towards the end. This win was really important for us, losing three in a row. Jaipur is our home ground and so it was nice to win here.