Former Rajasthan Royals coach Monty Desai recently shared an anecdote of how the team’s former captain Shane Warne once prepared an accurate plan to dismiss former Mumbai Indians skipper Sachin Tendulkar. Desai was unsure whether Warne would play against MI during the 2009 IPL season.
It was a league stage match, and before the game, Monty bumped into Sachin Tendulkar at the breakfast table. Sachin casually asked him if Warne would play the game. Monty answered him ‘no’. He then rushed back to Warne’s room, and surprisingly found out that the leg-spinner was playing.
Warne then prepared a strategy to dismiss Tendulkar in that match. He bowled two balls down the leg side to give a hint to Tendulkar that he is not in the best form. The third ball was a flipper which trapped Tendulkar in front of his stumps. Shane Warne won the Man of the Match award in that game.
I never asked Shane Warne about that: Monty Desai
In an interview with Sportskeeda Cricket, Monty Desai, who is currently the batting coach of West Indies cricket team recalled that incident and said:
“That morning, I bumped into Sachin Tendulkar at the breakfast table and he casually asked me if Warnie would play the game. I jumped to the conclusion that he wouldn’t.”
Since Warne played that match, Desai was asked if there were any mind-games, to which he replied:
“I don’t know, to be honest. I never asked Warnie about that. For me, the greatest part of the game was the way he got Sachin out in the last over. He bowled a couple of balls down the leg-side, as if showing that he wasn’t in his best form. He eventually dismissed Sachin off the third ball.”
Desai concluded by saying that Tendulkar swept the first two balls, but he was dismissed LBW off the flipper bowled by Shane Warne.
