Everything is going Mahi’s way. After brilliant World Cup victory, MS Dhoni once again pulled out miracle victory over KKR in IPL 4 opening game at Chennai after glittering opening ceremony. IPL 4 kick-started in style with the thriller. Captain Cool kept his nerves and did everything possible to beat Gambhir’s Knight
s. On the other hand after brilliant beginning to the modest chase KKR faltered badly as they lost wickets in a hurry and finally KKR lost by just 2 runs. Junior Srikkanth played brilliant inniings for CSK and given them platform to build par score on a pitch which was turning square. Junior Srikkanth have to thank a lot to Yusuf Pathan who dropped him early on and that proved expensive for KKR. In the last over Albie Morkel’s lusty hitting took CSK score past 150 which proved winning score for CSK in the end.
It was surprising that Gambhir came into bat after 5 down. Certainly Shahrukh & co. wouldn’t have expected this move of Gambhir for whom KKR paid highest price.It looked 
like Gambhir was tired after his World Cup effort and wanted some rest. Yusuf Pathan who fetched second highest price in auction also failed to do justice to his price and dropped 2 important catches and didn’t score required runs as well even after getting promotion to bat at No.3. Kallis batted brilliantly and till the time he was on crease hopes were alive for KKR but poor running between the wicket. Poor shot selection by Kallis and hopeless fielding and catching played important role in KKR's defeat against CSK.
Shahrukh Khan must be thinking what else he have to do to win IPL . He changed captain, Management and almost entire team, yet his mis-fortune continues.Although its too early to predict anything as lot of matches remaining for the KKR and hopefully they will win them.
DC will take on RR
2nd edition IPL Champion Deccan Chargers Hyderabad will take on inaugural IPL champion Rajasthan Royals. It’s a battle between two former champions.
Rajasthan failed to buy players of their liking at the auction due to limited purse. But good thing for them is that they were able to retain their magical captain Shane Warne who inspire them to win the inaugural IPL trophy. Rajasthan although failed to buy enough players but they still have very formidable side which includes the likes 
of Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, Shane Watson, Johan Botha. Shane Watson will miss initial round of IPL due to ongoing series between Australia and Bangladesh. But still Rajasthan can win the games because they have capable players to do so. It’s a brilliant opportunity for the young domestic players like Deepak Chahar and Pankaj Singh to impress the selectors with their performance in IPL. Remember Deepak Chahar and Pankaj Singh played important role in Rajasthan’s Ranji triumph this season. Both were among highest wicket-takers in Ranji season. So Team India have the chance to get fresh bowling ammunition from this IPL.
Team Info:
Rajasthan Royals
Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan (Foreign) Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait.Shane Warne(Coach/Captain).
DC has undergone great changes this year. Adam Gilchrist, the captain who help them in winning 2nd edition of IPL will be captaining Kings XI Punjab this year. So they will have new cap
tain in Kumar Sangakkara. With the loss of batting stars like Adam Gilchrist, Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds, Deccan don't look that formidable and they would hope that their new players get them off to a winning start.Their new skipper Kumar Sangakkara, who stepped down from captaincy after Sri Lanka's loss to India in the World Cup final, is in good form and would hope that players like JP Duminy and Michael Lumb help the side to start its campaign on a high. Pietersen pulled out of the World Cup to undergo a hernia surgery and is still recovering from it. The English batsman will miss the entire season for the Chargers.White, on the other hand, is part of the Aussie squad playing three-match ODI series in Bangladesh. Deccan looks vulnerable in the batting department. But their bowling looks strong as the world's fastest bowler Dale Steyn is up in their rank. He can be supported by Indian pacers Ishant Sharma, who played for the Kolkata Knight Riders till last season, and Manpreet Gony, who was a part of Chennai Super Kings' squad. Meanwhile, Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha will be the options in the spin department.
Team Info:
Deccan Chargers
Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Manpreet Gony, Akash Bhandari, Anand Rajan, Ankit Nagendra, Arjun Yadav, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, DB Ravi Teja, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Ishank Jaggi, Ishan Malhotra, Jaydev Shah, Kedar Devdhar, Sunny Sohal (Foreign) Kumar Sangakkara (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Kevin Pietersen, Cameron White, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn, Daniel Christian, Chris Lynn, Juan Theron, Michael Lumb.Darren Lehmann(Coach)
So watch the battle of champions in IPL today at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Kochi will face RCB challenge
Today’s second game will be between Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Kochi Tuskers Kerala is new entrant in IPL. Although team belongs to Kerala but its promoters are Gujaratis. This team had lot of controversy surrounded around it and they were almost rejected due to some irregularities in its formation. Cabinet minister Shashi Tharoor lost his ministry because of this team. But finally Kochi franchisee got little life-line from IPL governing body and now they are here.
Kochi, one of the two new teams in this year's IPL, will be led by Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene with Geoff Lawson being the coach. On paper this team doesn’t look that formidable. Although it has names like 
VVS Laxman, S.Sreesanth, Brendon McCullum. It also has Players like Parthiv Patel, Brad Hodge, Owais Shah and above all recently retired Sri Lankan legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. Ravindra Jadeja who was banned from IPL last season will also feature in this team and it is great platform for him to get back into the Indian team. Bowling looks far more formidable as S.Sreesanth will spearhead the bowling attack and he will be supported by R.Vinakumar, Muralitharan, and highest wicket-taker of IPL RP Singh.
Team Info:
Kochi Tuskers
VVS Laxman, S Sreesanth, RP Singh, Parthiv Patel(Wicket-Keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Ramesh Powar, R Vinay Kumar, B Akhil, Chandan Madan, Deepak Chowghule, Kedar Jadhav, Raiphi Gomez, Sushant Marathe, Tanmay Srivastava, Y Gnanswara Rao, Yashpal Singh, Prashant Padmanabahan, (Foreign) Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), Brendon McCullum(Wicket-Keeper), Steven Smith, Muttiah Muralitharan, Brad Hodge, Thisara Perera, Steve O'Keefe, Owais Shah, Michael Klinger, John Hastings. Jeff Lawson(Coach)
Talking about RCB, they will be captained by the former Kiwi skipper 
Daniel Vettori. RCB retained only Virat Kohli from their last year’s team. So RCB has also gone under makeover. Compare to Kochi they are far more strong side on the paper. They have likes of AB de Villiers, Tillakaratane Dilshan, Virat Kohli, Saurabh Tiwary, Zaheer Khan, Dirk Nannes, which makes them far more superior compare to their opponents. Dilshan, after a brilliant World Cup where he finished as the tournament's top scorer, is most likely to open the innings for Challengers. Zaheer Khan will spear head their bowling attack and that gives them big edge over other teams because Zaheer is in superb bowling form right now and bowling at his very best. Even after having formidable team and legendary Kumble at the helm of the affairs, RCB failed to win the IPL title in last 3 seasons. They reached the finals in 2nd edition but lost to Deccan Chargers. So this year they will be determined to win the title after failing to win it thrice.
Team Info:
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Daniel Vettori (Captain), Virat Kohli, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB De Villiers (wicket-keeper), Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dirk Nannes, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, CM Gautam (Wicket-Keeper), S Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthick, Asad Khan Pathan, Abrar Kazi, Ryan Ninan, Bhareth Narayanan, Nuwan Pradeep.Ray Jennings(Coach)
So edge is with RCB in this match and it will be interesting to see how Kochi performs against formidable team like RCB.
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