All-round Botha stars in Mumbai hammering
ESPNcricinfo staff
29-Apr-2011
Johan Botha is proving why Rajasthan Royals dug deep to buy him back • Getty Images
When Rajasthan Royals bid up to $950,000 to retain Johan Botha's services at the IPL auction in January, several eyebrows were raised and lots of smirks made. What were they thinking? Surely $950,000 was too much for Botha, when players like Dwayne Bravo were bought at base price. And then the tournament began, and Botha began to bowl economically, and contribute vital runs at No. 3. His best performance to date - 3 for 6 and 45 off 39 balls - came against the IPL's top side, Mumbai Indians, and helped Rajasthan climb to No. 2 in the league.
Shane Warne, for reasons best known to him, kept Botha out of the attack against Mumbai for 15 overs, giving him the ball when the power-hitters Kieron Pollard and Andrew Symonds were at the crease. His third ball was a sharp offbreak that struck Pollard on the pad as the batsman moved across to flick. Botha was celebrating the lbw almost before the umpire raised the finger. The first ball of his second over was one that came slowly off the pitch and beat Symonds' attempted sweep and hit off stump. He had dismissed the two Mumbai batsmen capable of causing maximum damage in minimum time.
Two balls later Botha slid the ball past R Sathish's attempted charge and heave, and had him stumped. He had run through the lower-middle order and played a crucial role in limiting Mumbai to 94 for 8.
Rajasthan were 17 for 1 after 4.3 overs when Botha began his innings. He took his time settling in because the asking-rate wasn't much, and then launched Harbhajan Singh over the deep midwicket boundary. He also cut, dabbed and drove incessantly, rotating strike with Shane Watson. When Malinga returned in the 12th over, with Mumbai desperately needing a wicket, Botha drove his first ball to the long-off boundary.
He held firm even after Watson fell, and only in the 18th over, when Rajasthan needed five runs to win, did he miss one from Munaf and get bowled. It was the first time in five innings that Botha had been dismissed in IPL 2011. How's that for value for money?