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Watson plundered 52 from just 29 deliveries before wreaking havoc with the ball, taking a parsimonious 3 for 10 to thrash Glenn McGrath’s Delhi Daredevils by 105 runs in Mumbai.The Shane Warne-skippered Royals were sent in to bat after losing the toss, and raced a to monstrous 9 for 192 from their allotted 20 overs.

South African captain Graeme Smith (25) and Swapnil Asnodkar (39) laid the platform atop the Royals’ order, before Watson and Yusuf Pathan (45 from 21) took to the Daredevils with reckless abandon.McGrath was expensive, going for 38 runs without return from his four-over spell.

Delhi offered little in response in a one-sided semi-final, skittled for just 87 runs with 3.5 overs to spare.Watson starred with the ball alongside Warne (2 for 21) and Munaf Patel (3 for 17), with Tillakaratne Dilshan’s 33 from 22 posting the Daredevils’ highest individual score.

The selectors meet here on Friday to pick the team for the tri-series and the Asia Cup. “Tendulkar has opted out of the two series,” said Niranjan Shah, Secretary, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The physio of the Mumbai Indians team, Nitin Patel, in his report had advised the BCCI to rest Tendulkar because of a chronic groin ailment. John Gloster, the Indian team’s physio in Australia had cautioned the champion batsman against allowing the troubling groin to reach a chronic state.

Captain of the Mumbai Indians team in the DLF-IPL, Tendulkar was forced to sit out the first seven matches and made 188 runs in the last seven matches.Patel, who was the physio of the Indian Team on the last tour of England, has said in his report that Tendulkar has “75-80 per cent recovered from osteitis pubis (groin problem) that was present since February 2008 during the tour of Australia.”

“He is currently undergoing a rehabilitation programme that includes strengthening of his core and specific functional strengthening of the groin. It is advisable to consider getting him to rest the groin from strenuous activities at present. “I have asked the physios of all the IPL teams to submit a fitness report of all the Indian players. The reports will be shown to the selection committee on Friday. A 15-member team will be selected for the tri-series in Bangladesh as well as the Asia Cup,” Mr. Shah said.

Harbhajan Singh has been banned for five ODIs and the committee may pick Baroda’s Yusuf Pathan. Mr. Shah said the committee might also pick the India Emerging Players for the four nation one-day tournament in Australia from July 14-26. The other three teams are Australian Institute of Sports, South Africa Emerging Players and New Zealand Emerging Players. Until last year, the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) played in the tournament.

At the behest of Cricket South Africa Chief Executive Gerald Majola, BCCI representatives Mr. Shah and Prof. Ratnakar Shetty, Chief Administrative Officer, BCCI, have persuaded Cricket Australia to invite the Indian Emerging Players for the four-nation tournament.An India ‘A’ team is scheduled to play three one-day matches in Israel soon. “We have to schedule it at an appropriate time,” said Prof. Shetty.

When asked about the status of the bowling coach, Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach, Robin Singh, Mr. Shah said: “We will have a meeting with Gary Kirsten and Mahendra Singh Dhoni after the selection of the team and decide on the support staff. The BCCI is not looking for an overseas bowling and fielding coach.” The news on the grapevine though is that Kirsten is keen to bring former South African seamer, Fanie de Villers on board.

Sachin Tendulkar’s side exacted revenge for the loss his team suffered when Mumbai had hosted the Royal Challengers, but the win was inconsequential as they had no chance of advancing to the semi-finals.Sanath Jayasuriya and Tendulkar put on 96 runs for the opening stand as the Mumbai Indians made light of a target of 123.

Jayasuriya clobbered four sixes and four fours in a typically belligerent batting display as Rahul Dravid’s decision to again open the bowling with Anil Kumble backfired. Kumble conceded nine runs in his first over and was quickly removed from the attack.

Kumble was at the receiving end as Jayasuriya completed his half century when he swung the leg-spinner for six over deep midwicket. Jayasuriya finally fell for 54 when he miscued a short-arm jab off Dale Steyn to B Akhil at cover.Tendulkar kept the other end secure with a display of controlled aggression. He struck four fours and a six in an unfinished knock of 40, ensuring victory when he swept Kumble for a couple of boundaries.

Bangalore Royal Challengers had earlier failed to make good on a modest start. Dilhara Fernando had wrecked the Royal Challengers’ top order with a three-wicket haul in his first two overs.The Sri Lankan paceman vindicated skipper Tendulkar’s decision to field first in a game reduced to 18 overs due to rain, removing openers Mark Boucher (18) and S Goswami (20) in quick time.

He then had the dangerous Misbah-ul-Haq dismissed for nought before returning in the final overs to claim the wicket of Vinay Kumar and finish with figures of four for 18 from four overs.Dwayne Smith ensured wickets fell at regular intervals as the Royal Challengers stuttered and stumbled under the pressure of losing early wickets. Smith finished with three for 26 from four overs.

Rajasthan, who missed regular skipper Shane Warne, ended at 180 for the loss of the seven wickets.Marsh, who has smashed five half-centuries in the tournament, continued with his purple patch and slammed his sixth IPL fifty.

James Hopes followed the suite and scored 51 runs.Marsh and Hopes had given a flying start to Kings XI Punjab after being put in to bat by Rajasthan Royals at the PCA Stadium in Mohali.

The tie between Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals was the last league match of the DLF Indian Premier League and yesterday’s result does not have any effect on the teams facing each other in the semi-finals starting on May 30.

Warne has rested himself yesterday and Shane Watson instead captained the side.Pakistan batsman Younus Khan finally got his first match of the tournament. However, he could make only 3.

In the first match of the day, the Mumbai Indians took on the Kings XI Punjab. Last time these two teams met, S. Sreesanth was at the receiving end of a slap and Harbhajan was at the receiving end of a fine. Mumbai lost that match, then another, before making a u-turn to win six in a row. The Kings, on the other hand have been doing consistently well, and have won seven matches of the 10 they have played.

The Wankhede wicket usually supports spinners in the longer form of the game, but it has been a seamers’ paradise in this tournament so far. The moisture and the late night dew have had something to do with this. This match was to be a day game, thus taking away the dew factor. The pitch also looked like a typical Wankhede wicket, and was expected to play a little slower, and turn a bit.

Despite this, and the fact that Sachin Tendulkar has played all his cricket here, he won the toss and decided to bowl first. Dwayne Bravo was back in the Caribbean and so was replaced by the other Dwayne - Dwayne Smith - who incidentally had scored a run-a-ball hundred on his Test debut. Mumbai also got in two virtually unheard quantities, Vikrant Yeligati and Siddharth Chitnis whereas the Kings brought in Tanmay Srivastava in place of portly off-spinner, Ramesh Powar. So, one team dropping a spinner, the other going in with a couple of them!

The man-in-form, Shaun Marsh, opened the Kings inning with James Hopes, and the Kings were jolted as early as the third ball of the inning by his namesake (Shaun Pollock) when Hopes was clueless about the one that pitched on the off-stump and drifted away. The edge went into the safe gloves of the new wicket keeper, Pinal Shah.

The new batsman was Luke Pomersbach, and the pair found it difficult to adjust to the pace of the wicket, Kings were 9/1 in 3 overs. Marsh was dropped by Robin Uthappa at short extra cover, and then Pomersbach hit a six and a four off Ashish Nehra to get the score moving to 30/1 in 5, Shaun Pollock having bowled three of his 4 overs.

Yeligati, the off-spinner came into bowl within the field restrictions and was thrashed for 13 and Chitnis went for nine. Marsh who struggled to come to grips with the pitch began to stroke the ball more freely, and pulled and cut Fernando for a couple of boundaries. Such was the intimidation of the partnership that five successive overs saw different bowlers bowling them, in the process getting Marsh to his 4th fifty of the tournament with Punjab reaching 84/1 in ten.

The Kings 100 came in the 12th over, as the heat began to take its toll on the Mumbai bowlers and the spinners began to leak even more on a pitch that was supposed to assist them. Surprisingly, Tendulkar did not change the bowlers around, and the two youngsters, Chitnis and Yeligati, each conceded 30 in their three overs, before Chitnis got rid of Marsh for a smashing 56-ball 81. The wicket did slow down the scoring, as the 16th over of the inning went for only five runs. This in turn frustrated the Kings further, and led to the downfall of Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayawardena, but Pomersbach was not done yet. He smashed 41 runs in the last three overs of the inning, in turn scoring an unbeaten 79, to lead his team’s march to 189/4 in the 20. For some strange reason, Mumbai Indians’ best bowler, Shaun Pollock, bowled only three overs, picking up a wicket for fourteen runs.

# Kolkata Knight Riders have lost seven out of the 12 games they have played in the competition. Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab have won seven games each. Only Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers, with nine defeats each, have lost more games than Kolkata Knight Riders.

Other statistical highlights:

# Kolkata Knight Riders have not made it to 150 in any of their last four games.

# David Hussey completed his 300 runs in the IPL - 307 at an average of 30.70. He is the tenth batsman to amass 300 runs or more in the competition.

# Sohail Tanvir, with three for 36, took his tally of wickets to 14 at an average of 11.64. Both Sohail and Shane Warne (14 at 20.28 runs apiece) are placed second in the list of leading wicket-takers behind Rudra Pratap Singh (15).

# Wriddhiman Saha, with Graeme Smith’s catch, became the first wicketkeeper to effect ten dismissals - 8 catches + 2 stumpings - in the IPL.

# Mohammad Kaif and Yusuf Pathan put on 81 runs - a fifth wicket record for Rajasthan Royals, eclipsing the 69 between Jadeja and Shane Watson against Kings XI at Jaipur on April 21.