Well, it would be frank to say that first semi final was a no contest. Rajasthan clearly showed their class against hapless Delhi, much like the Australians show up in international arena in crucial matches, making the opponent irrelevant. The biggest mistake Delhi did was, even after winning the toss, it chose to field and paid the price. Rajasthan’s shaky middle order could have created opportunities if Delhi had them chasing a total. But Sehwag thought otherwise.

Rajasthan put into bat by Delhi scored an impression 192/9 in 20 overs. Shane Watson’s 52(29) and  Yusuf Pathan’s 45(21) helped Rajasthan’s cause and not to forget contributions from Smith 25(21) and Asnodkar 39(21), the openers. Yusuf justified his selection into national team by this knock. How easily hit could hit those 3 6’s? I always felt Delhi was always 2-men show involving Sehwag and Gambhir. If you get them out your job is half done. That is exactly what happened here. With Sehwag 3(4), Gambir 15(11) back in the pavillion with 23 on board, Delhi could hardly fight the mighty Rajasthanis.  Hero here also was Shane Watson, who took top order 3 wickets(V Sehwag, G Gambhir and S Dhawan) for 10 runs bowling 3 overs, which damaged the chances of Delhi winning. His well directed short deliveries in the match ensured Delhi does not score at a brisk rate and loose wickets too.  Munaf Patel also came up with 3 wickets. Warne took 2 wickets while Trivedi took 1 wicket of Dinesh Karthik.

Rajasthan deserve to be in the IPL finals with 11 wins under their belt in the league stage. It has been a long way for this team to reach this stage. Odds were against them when they started their compaign with no star cricketer except Shane Warne. And now they are one win away from glory of lifting inaugural IPL trophy. I feel looking at today’s performance, they are going to be the winners in the finals on June 1.