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The grand finale of the Indian Premier League (IPL) lived up to expectations and fittingly the Rajasthan Royals clinched the thriller in the last ball.
At the start of the tournament, nobody would have visualised a victory for the Rajasthan Royals. They did not have any big names bar Shane Warne in their team and they got off pretty poorly.
But midway through the tournament, they picked themselves up and began to impact the tournament. The credit undoubtedly goes to Warne for revitalising the team.
Warne's enthusiastic and at times unorthodox leadership paid rich dividends in the end. He was always ready to experiment, reshuffling the batting order to suit the situation, and making daring bowling changes.
The biggest plus point of his captaincy was that he won the support of his players by helping and talking to them all the time.
Australia certainly missed a trick by not making him captain. The IPL gave Warne a chance to prove that he is a great captain and all that was written about his leadership qualities was right.
Warne had three players who made a major impact in the tournament. Shane Watson finally got over his injury problems to win the Player of the Tournament award.
Watson did well both with bat and ball. He lived up to his reputation as a promising all-rounder and it is now clear why Australia persisted with him despite his poor run at the top level.
Yusuf Pathan was honoured with a place in the Indian team for his exploits in the IPL. His hard-hitting was thrilling and he managed to clear the boundaries effortlessly. Importantly, he got runs when his team needed it most.
Sohail Tanvir did a great job with the ball and his quick arm action was not read by many of the batsmen. He was also Warne's pinch hitter and he floated in the batting order to the needs of the situation.
The contributions of the others should not be forgotten particularly that of Swapnil Asnodkar. The Goa batsman gave the Royals a good start with his hard-hitting and at times audacious batting.
Though he missed the final, Grame Smith also played a major role in the Rajasthan Royals' revival.
The Chennai team should be given credit for making it to the final. The team lost some of their top stars at the start of the tournament due to national commitments. Yet they got over it and gave a good account of themselves.
The contributions of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Albie Morkel and Manpreet Goni were decisive. Goni was probably the discovery of the tournament and the fast bowler is sure to wear the India colours soon.
The winners received $1.2 million (BD453,675) and a glittering gem-laden trophy, while the runners-up received $600,000.
With a great ending to a good tournament, the IPL is here to stay.
