Not many teams end up winning a tournament after losing three games in a row. That's something that Rajasthan Royals will have to cope with in this year's Indian Premier League.

How Warne can inspire his crestfallen Rajasthan teammates

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How Warne can inspire his crestfallen Rajasthan teammates

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Not many teams end up winning a tournament after losing three games in a row. That's something that Rajasthan Royals will have to cope with in this year's Indian Premier League.

But nothing is impossible if a side bears the name of Shane Keith Warne on its team sheet.

Doubtless, the Royals will have to dig deep into their innermost reserves of self belief and resolve after yesterday's ten-wicket caning from Royal Challengers Bangalore. Warne, the best skipper never to have led Australia in Test match cricket in the modern era will have to do a fair share of speaking to his young team. It won't be out of place to cite his own example of a young spinner being down in confidence and then doing something the next day which changed his cricketing life for ever.

Warne was picked in Allan Border's team to Sri Lanka in 1992 despite his forgettable Test debut against India at Sydney where his mate Ravi Shastri plundered a double hundred. Warne was reduced to 12th man towards the end of his first-class season with Victoria which gave him more reason to believe that the selectors wouldn't pick him for Sri Lanka, but they did. However, Warne worked on his fitness and bowling.

The first innings of the first Test at Colombo was horrific u00e2u0080u0093 he took 0 for 107 off 22 overs to take his career Test figures to 1 for 335 as Sri Lanka scored 547 for eight declared in response to Australia's 256. After the visitors scored 471 in the second innings, Lanka were set a target of 181 in a Test which had already witnessed 1274 runs.

On the night of the fourth day which Australia finished with 393 for seven, Warne met his fellow spinner Greg Matthews over pasta.

"Moie (Matthews' nickname) knew I was down and he was going to try and lift me," wrote Warne in Shane Warne u00e2u0080u0093 My Own Story (as told to Mark Ray; published by Swan Publishing).

Matthews, who Indian fans will remember for taking Maninder Singh's wicket which caused the 1986 India vs Australia Test in Chennai to end in a tie, told Warne: "They wouldn't have picked you if they didn't think you could bowl. 'Suicide, (Warne's nickname u00e2u0080u0093 after INXS's hit track Suicide Blonde) you and I will do it tomorrow and we could be bowling for Australia for five years. So let's go and get them tomorrow."

Warne soaked in whatever Matthews said, but he spent a restless night with the thought of being finished as a Test player if he couldn't come up with something special. Sri Lanka made a mess of their chase and captain Border threw the ball to his young spinner. Over to Warne from his book: "We needed four wickets and they needed less than 30 to win. Mo (Matthews) was at short cover not far away from me, giving me support in his unique way. "Come on Suicide," he was calling. "Spin 'em hard. Spin 'em up, Suicide. Let's go, Suicide.

"I bowled a maiden first up and gathered some confidence. Moie took a wicket next over. Then next over I took a wicket u00e2u0080u0093 my first for the match. Next up Moie bowled a good over and I took another wicket in my next.

Asanka Gurusinha had made 137 in the first innings and he was still in at this stage.

"Next over Madurasinghe hit me to cover, in the air straight to Moie and we'd won the Test match. It was mayhem after that. It was AB's (Border) first win as captain on the sub-continent after years of trying. Sri Lanka had lost 8/37 and somehow I had taken 3/0 off 13 balls."

Career launch
At the end of that chapter entitled Now or Never, Warne wrote: "My career had come a fair way from those lonely early winter mornings pounding the roads in Melbourne and that plate of pasta in Colombo with Mo Matthews."

Warne continues to be one of the more inspiring personalities in the game. And this story shows why. The Royals play next against Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday. Will we see a twist to the tale?