This Day That Year: Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural title in 2008
Rajasthan Royals
stunned the World by beating Chennai Super Kings in the finals of the inaugural
edition played at DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai on 1st June 2008.
Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne won the toss and
decided to field first. CSK openers Parthiv Patel and Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan
got off to a steady start putting on 39 runs. Yusuf Pathan was bought into the
attack in the 6th over and struck immediately by dismissing Vidyut.
At the end of six overs, CSK were 42 for 1.
Suresh Raina and Parthiv Patel put on 25 runs for the 2nd
wicket before Yusuf Pathan got his 2nd wicket to get rid off Patel
for 38. Everybody got starts but were not able to convert those into big
scores. MS Dhoni showed his class in the
death overs as he remained not out on 29 off 17 balls to help CSK post 163 for
5 in 20 overs. Yusuf Pathan was the pick of the bowlers for Rajasthan Royals
with 3 for 22 in 4 overs, Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir took 1 wicket each.
Chasing 164 runs to win, Swapnil Asnodkar played with
positive intent while Niraj Patil struggled to score runs and was eventually
dismissed for 2. The right-handed Swapnil took on CSK bowlers. At the end of
six overs, Rajasthan Royals were 41 for 1.
Royals lost the wickets of Asknodkar and Kamran Akmal after
the power play over to struggle at 42 for 3. Yusuf Pathan came to the crease
taking on the CSK bowlers along with Watson. Both rescued RR innings as they
added 65 runs for the 4th wicket. Muttiah Muralitharan got the
breakthrough dismissing Watson for 28 off 19 balls. Yusuf Pathan kept on going
and reached his fifty off 36 balls.
Mohammad Kaif, Ravindra Jadeja, and the well-set Yusuf Pathan
were dismissed to leave Rajasthan Royals needing 18 runs off 12 balls. The
match went right down to the wire as Sohail Tanvir and Shane Warne kept his
nerves to help Rajasthan Royals register a thrilling 3 wicket win off the last
ball. Both Warne and Tanvir scored 9 runs each. For CSK, Albie Morkel and
Muralitharan took 2 wickets each while Manpreet Gony took 1 wicket while Kamran
Akmal and Yusuf Pathan were run-outs.
The Journey of Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2008
Under the captaincy of Shane Warne, Rajasthan Royals stunned
the World by becoming the Champions of the inaugural edition in 2008 which
nobody expected.
Rajasthan Royals had a brilliant league stage as they
finished top of the points table with 11 wins and only 3 losses. Royals won all
their games at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur defeating Chennai Super
Kings, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight
Riders, Mumbai Indians, and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
They defeated Chennai Super Kings, Deccan Chargers, Kolkata
Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore away from home. Royals' three
losses came against Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab, and Delhi Daredevils.
They had some outstanding performances in the season. Shane
Watson was the leading run-scorer for RR with 472 runs from 15 matches (15
innings) with 4 half-centuries. His best score in the tournament was 76*.
Graeme Smith made 441 runs from 11 matches (11 innings) with 3 half-centuries
and the best score of 91. Watson and Graeme Smith finished as 4th
and 5th leading run-scorer in the tournament.
Out of the 5 bowlers, three were from Rajasthan Royals.
Sohail Tanvir from Pakistan was the Purple Cap Holder with 22 wickets from 11
matches (11 innings) at an economy of 6.46 runs per over. He registered the
figures of 6/14 which was broken by Alazzari Joseph in 2019.
Royals captain Shane Warner led from the front with 18
wickets from 15 matches (15 innings) with an economy of 8.63 runs per over.
After contributing with the bat, Watson did the job with the ball picking 17
wickets from 15 matches with an economy of 7.07 runs per over. His best figures
were 3/10. Warne and Watson were 3rd and 4th in terms of
leading wicket-takers. Yusuf Pathan and Shane Watson were awarded man of the
match awards 4 times each. Apart from this, Yusuf had the 2nd best
strike rate of 179.01 in IPL 2008.
Pre-Auction
In the first-ever auction, Rajasthan Royals bought Shane
Warne for a base price of 3.21 Crore. Graeme Smith, Yusuf Pathan, Shane Watson,
and Mohammad Kaif were other top buys by RR along with Shane Warne.
Taruwar Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja were the picks from the
Under 19. They picked Kamran Akmal, Swapnil Asknodkar, Younis Khan, Kamran
Khan, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Munaf Patel, Niraj Patel, Mahesh Rawat, Dinesh
Salunkhe, Pankaj Singh, Graeme Smith, Sohail Tanvir, Siddarth Trivedi.
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| Rajasthan Royals won the first-ever IPL |
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