India's Twenty20 cricket tournament, the IPL wound down to a Sunday climax, analysts made a discovery - that the most valuable player in this format was the bowling all-rounder. Rather in the manner of a natural phenomenon proving a theoretical scientist right, Shane Watson scored a fifty and claimed three wickets to take Rajasthan Royals past Delhi Daredevils and into the final of the tournament. They await the winner of the Chennai versus Punjab clash on Saturday. Watson's 55 took just 29 deliveries and in the company of Yusuf Pathan (45) he won round one for Rajasthan - it ensured that their bowlers were never under pressure. Just to make sure, he then claimed 3-10, and Delhi simply didn't look the part. “A Twenty20 innings is a series of 120 competitions, and we were conscious of that,” said skipper Shane Warne, putting things in perspective. Five of the top seven batsmen had a strike rate over 140; it was a level of intensity Delhi could not match. In the context of the IPL, the Delhi Daredevils have been a middling team, winning just about half their matches in the league while the Rajasthan Royals were truly blue-blooded, topping the league with 11 wins in 14 matches. Not all is fair in love and sport, yet it would have been grossly unfair if the less successful team had made it to Sunday's final. If the six-week tournament has shown one thing it is that occasionally one or two outstanding performances might carry a team, but more often the oldest cliché in the team game has been reinforced: that teamwork ultimately decides. And Shane Warne's Royals (maybe next year they can call the team by that name) has been the team of the tournament. Rajasthan's 105-run win accurately reflected the difference between a team which could count on 11 players and an opposition which had shot its bolt once the top three batsmen were dismissed. Long before Delhi was all out for 87 in the 17th over (last man Mohammed Asif run out seemingly because he forgot to get back into the crease), Rajasthan's 192 for nine had already assumed gigantic proportions. The match as a contest ended early in the Delhi innings when it slumped to 24 for three. Delhi skipper Sehwag's decision to field on winning the toss on a humid Mumbai evening at the Wankhede Stadium might not have made a difference in the final analysis, but from that moment on, Delhi was on the defensive, and with Warne leading from the front - this man has enough confidence to share with the team and still have pots left over for himself - the second lesson analysts have arrived at was reinforced too. That captaincy plays a crucial role in this format. It was a disappointing semifnal, too one-sided to be interesting. But Warne will not complain. Nor should Sehwag - Delhi was lucky to get this far. Scores: Rajasthan Royals - 192 for 9 (Watson 52, Yusuf 45, Maharoof 3-34); Delhi Daredevils 87 (Dilshan 33, Watson 3-10, Munaf 3-17). Man of the Match: Shane Watson. India picks Yusuf, Irfan Brothers Yusuf and Irfan Pathan were both picked by the Indian selectors Friday for limited-overs tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan. The other uncapped player in India's 15-member squad is left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha. Squad: M.S. Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, V. Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, R. Uthappa, S. Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, P. Kumar, P. Chawla, S. Sreesanth, R.P. Singh, Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha.S __
