subject: Rajasthan Royals won first IPL against all odds [print this page] Rajasthan Royals won first IPL against all odds
The Rajasthan Royals franchise of IPL is owned by Emerging Media group with investors - Lachlan Murdoch, Sir. Aditya Chellaram and Suresh Chellaram. Bollywood actress and Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa Shetty and her business partner Raj Kundra paid about US $15.4 million for an 11.7% stake in the team's ownership
The first edition of the Indian Premier League was won by a side which one had least expected to. Rajasthan Royals had never been tipped to go all the way, in fact, not too many had backed them to even enter the semi-final of the tournament.
The reason for this was that the team that had been selected by the Rajasthan Royals in the first auction had been done conservatively and there was clearly an overreliance on players not heard of before.
Likes of Sohail Tanvir and Swapnil Asnodkar made name for themselves after they were allowed to flourish by Shane Warne.
After the side lost their first game and looked doomed in their third IPL match, the naysayers had already begun to castigate the selection of the side and that of the captain Shane Warne.
Then, Warne played an innings of his life with the bat in his hand to guide the side to a win and there was no looking back after that. They went from one win to another and by the time the league stage had ended, they had topped the group of eight IPL teams.
Rajasthan were then drawn to play Delhi in the semi-finals, which they won with consummate ease and took on Chennai Super Kings in the final of the tournament.
The game went right down to the wire with Sohail Tanvir, who had been the star of the show with the ball in his hand, went on to clinch the win with a boundary off the last ball of the game.
Unfortunately since then, the Rajasthan Royals have never entered the semi-finals of the IPL in the second and the third edition. In fact, in the second edition of the tournament, Warne selected a squad which was meant for the tracks of India and but the tournament was shifted to South Africa.
