Thread by @banglani

My favourite Shane Warne memory is from a meaningless IPL game from 2010.
#Cricket

I had already lost interest in the IPL by then, and had no idea how the league was going. But flipping through the channels in a sad hotel room, I caught a glimpse of Warne bowling.

The match situation was hopeless. The opposition needed 68 off 54 balls with only three wickets down. But Warne was bowling, so you knew it wasn't over.

I don't know why he had held himself back till the 12th over, but he bowled four on the trot and prised out 4/21. But the other end continued to leak runs, and they entered the last over with only 6 needed and a rampant young Rohit Sharma on strike.

Everybody in the team knew the game was lost. Spectators on the ground knew the game was lost. The TV audience knew the game was lost. Only one man believed it could still be won.

The bowler was a thoroughly deflated Siddharth Trivedi. Warne was having none of it. He bustled about - setting the field, advising the bowler, pumping up his fielders. Leading an extended conference with Trivedi and Watson before every ball.

Single off the first ball, the second called a wide. 4 from 5 now. Surely *now* it was lost.

But Warne was still hustling. It wasn't false bravado or motivational management bullshit. It slowly dawned on me that Shane Warne, without a shred of doubt, believed that he will win the game from there. It was self belief to the point of delusion.

It turned out that they did. Through a combination of good bowling, phenomenal captaincy and not a little mental disintegration, Warne forced mistake after mistake from the opposition batsmen. They lost three wickets off consecutive balls, including the inevitable comedy run out.

But that night, it was not the result that mattered. The night was about one man who would just not back down. For whom no situation was too desperate to win from. Who could bend the world to his will through sheer force of personality.

Go well, Warnie. You will be missed.