Has Shane Warne still got it and does he fancy a game in Cardiff this week? Those were the questions being asked by Australians at Lord’s last night as Warne’s Rajasthan Royals played a Twenty20 charity match against Middlesex Panthers.
It was, the legendary leg spinner claimed, his final match at Lord’s and he took a wicket to mark the occasion, but one suspects that there may be one or two more final appearances if the right money is offered.
He did not need any of the old magic as Middlesex continued their abject season in Twenty20 cricket. Chasing 163 to beat Rajasthan, they needed 11 an over when Warne brought himself on for the ninth over. He marked out a short run-up, adjusted his field several times and tossed out a ball that was so wide of Dawid Malan’s off stump that it would have needed two “balls of the century” for it to turn enough to hit the wicket.
Warne would later dismiss Malan, stumped as he tried desperately to accelerate the score, and despite several wayward balls he kept the rate down with ten runs off his first three overs to set up a 46-run victory.
It was the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) belated arrival in London, three months after fear of the famous English weather had persuaded Lalit Modi, the league’s impresario, that South Africa would be a safer option for the temporary relocation of his Twenty20 tournament.
A match between the Twenty20 champions from India and England in 2008, played at Lord’s during a heatwave, was the ideal stage for England to show what could have been. Naturally, it started to rain after three overs. As the drizzle turned into a downpour and then a deluge, the teams huddled beneath the barely adequate protection offered by the see-through dugouts, realising that any attempt to dash for the pavilion would leave them drenched.
Rajasthan racked up 162 for five. Swapnil Asnodkar and Mohammad Kaif each made 41 but the real impetus was given by Dimitri Mascarenhas, on loan, if you like, from Hampshire, who was unbeaten on 32 off 16 balls.
The game also marked the long overdue Rajasthan debut for Justin Langer, Warne’s former Australia team-mate who was bought in the first IPL auction for $200,000 (about £120,000) but decided to play for Somerset instead. He should have stayed there: Malan bowled him second ball.
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