Words on Cricket: April 2011

Thursday, April 28, 2011

No scarcity of fast bowlers

Batting of Team India don’t have any worry as there is enough talented batsmen available in India anytime. It was shortage of quality fast bowlers which caused lot of worry and raised lot of questions whenever our experienced fast bowler decided to retire. India never had luxury of six seven quality fast bowlers playing in same era. India always had only one quality fast bowler who carried all the load of fast bowling and around him few mediocre bowlers played but never gave enough support. So question raised who is next? Right now Indian cricket is going through purple patch and everything falling in place. India is No.1 in test ranking, won the World Cup, No.2 ODIs, doing well in T20 but only question that haunts among all these success and that is do India have the quality fast bowlers or who is next Zaheer or next Kapil or next Srinath?

Right now India have good young quicks and waiting for their opportunity. First and foremost name is Deepak Chahar from Rajasthan. He is 19 years old and made his Ranji debut this season against Hyderabad and what a sensational debut that was. Rajasthan bowled out Hyderabad for just 21 runs in that match and Chahar was instrumental in that collapse as he picked up 8 wickets for just 10 runs. He is among Top 3 wicket-takers, this Ranji season. His bowling played crucial role in Rajasthan’s first Ranji triumph. He possess lethal out-swingers with good pace.

Another guy who stormed into the scene is Varun Aaron from Jharkhand. He is 21 years old. He is currently India’s fastest bowler. He came into lime-light when he bowled the fastest ball which clocked 153.7 km on speed gun in Vijay Hazare ODI tournament against Gujarat. He consistently bowls at 150+ speed. He struggled with few back injuries earlier in his career but he recovered well and now known as Jamshedpur express in domestic cricket. Currently he is playing in IPL for Delhi Daredevils. One more shining star from Jharkhand after Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Saurabh Tiwary.

Umesh Yadav play for Vidarbha in Ranji Trophy. He is 23 years old. Umesh is very sharp and quick. He consistently hits the 145 km mark. His bouncers are very lethal, ask Sachin Tendulkar, who was hit on the head while practicing against Yadav in nets. He is playing for Delhi Daredevils in IPL. He got into Indian team and toured South Africa last year but did not get the opportunity to play the game on that tour. He played couple of ODI games for India last year. Good prospect.

Ishant Sharma, everybody knows about him. Very talented young bowler, made sensational debut in Australia couple of seasons back. He is 22 years old. He came into lime-light when he troubled Ricky Ponting and picked his wicket. After that he lost his way somewhat and did not play consistently for the country. He missed the World Cup as well. But IPL 4 has given him new life as he is bowling fast and looks in great rhythm. He picked up his first fiver of IPL yesterday against Kochi where he bowled unplayable deliveries to Kochi batsmen. It looks like he worked hard on his fitness and on his bowling during lay off.

Jaydev Unadkat is more bowler who emerged from Saurashtra. He is 19 years old. He came into lime-light in last year’s IPL when Akram praised him and express high regards for this youngster. He is left-arm bowler. He had consistent Ranji season. He was selected for South Africa tour last year and made his debut in 3rd test match of the series. Although that outing was not impressive as he remained wicket-less in that game. But he is young and under Akram’s guidance, he will become real force in future.

Abu Nechim, playing for Assam in Ranji Trophy. He is 22 years old. Another very talented young quick bowler. Abu bowls at the speed of 140+ km consistently with very good line-length. He is playing for Mumbai Indians in IPL and done well at domestic level.

So India have serious bowling talent and this talent is waiting for their chance eagerly. They are raw and quick. Good thing is that they all are under 23 years of age and bowling at 140+ km speed consistently. BCCI have to give them chance in coming series against West indies and nurture them for future as India have to play lot of cricket this year. Currently India is blessed with good fast bowling talent and BCCI and selectors have to blood these youngsters in the team and give them enough opportunity and also support them even if they don’t do well in 2 or 3 games. In past, India never had so many options in fast bowling, but now India have the option and its time preserve these young fast bowlers and help them in becoming world class performers. The country which had scarcity of fast bowlers, now have plenty of them at their disposal but will BCCI give them enough opportunity is a big question because talent is nothing without opportunity.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Few known and unknown facts about ‘GOD’ Sachin Tendulkar

->Grew his hair and tied a band around it to copy his idol John McEnroe.was called McEnroe by his friends. Admires Pete Sampras,Boris Becker and Diego Maradona.

-->Wanted to be a tearing fast bowler and even went to the MRF Pace academy but head coach Dennis Lilee told him to concentrate on his batting.

-->Has scored big runs on Indian festivals like Gokulastmi,Holi,Raksha Bandhan and Diwali.

-->Loved to have i-can-eat-more-vada-pavs-than-you competitions with cricket buddies Vinod Kambli and Salil Ankola.

-->Loves sea food. co-owns a restaurant called ‘Tendulkar’s’ near ‘Gateway of India’ in Mumbai.

-->Sydney cricket ground is his favorite ground.

-->Loves Kishore Kumar and rock group Dire Straits.Fusses over his personal stereo.

-->A ganesh devotee, he visits Siddhi Vinayak temple in the early hours of morning

-->Wears his left pad first, has the tricolor pasted inside his kit bag.

-->Remembers every test dismissals especially the bowler who dismissed him.Likes to dunk his glucose biscuit into his tea.

-->Ambidextrous: bats with his right hand and eats and autographs with his left hand.

-->Used to sleep with his cricket gear during his junior days.

-->Refused to shoot for a soft drink ad of him smashing cricket balls with a fly swatter.he reportedly told film-maker Prahlad Kakkar "that would make me greater than the game." the ad was modified: he hit the balls with a stump.

-->A fast car friend who likes to tear down Mumbai's road at 4 am.

-->Fell from a tree on a Sunday evening during the summer vacation, when Guide was showing on national TV. His infuriated brother (and mentor) Ajit packed him off to cricket coaching class as punishment.

-->Came back from 4 month tour of Australia after the 92 world cup and turned up to play for his college,Kirti college in April 1992.

-->Was without a bat contract during the 1996 world cup where he emerged as the highest run-getter. A famous tyre company promptly signed him up after that.

-->His coach at Shardashram, Ramakant Achrekar used to offer a 1 rupee coin as a prize to anyone who dismissed him. If he remained not out the coin belonged to Sachin. That he still has a good bunch of those coins tells the story.

-->Fielded for Pakistan as substitute during a one-day practice match against India in Brabourne stadium in 1988.

-->Was a ball boy during the 1987 world cup semi final match between India and England at Wankhede.

-->The first ad he shot was for a sticking plaster.

-->In school he was once mistaken for a girl by his good friend Atul Ranade because of his long curls.

-->Amitabh Bachchan became his favorite hero after watching Deewar and Zanjeer..

-->Played tennis ball cricket and darts during rainbreaks.

-->Sang and whistled with Vinod Kambli during their 664 run stand in Harris shield in 1988 to avoid eye contact with coach's assistant, who wanted to declare while the duo wanted to bat on.

-->Teammate Praveen Amre bought him his first pair of international quality cricket shoes.

-->Was a bully at school but was kind to cats and dogs. His first captain Sunil Harshe said that he loved to pick a fight. Every time he was introduced to someone, his 1st reaction was "will I be able to beat him?"

-->Used to go fishing for tadpoles and guppy fishes in the stream that ran through the compound of Sahitya Sahwas at Bandra East.

-->Made his mother once look for a frog bhaji recipe.

-->The nanny who looked after him is now universally called Sachuchi bai.

-->Colony watchman's son Ramesh Pardhe who was his playmate, said Sachin would ask him to dip a rubber ball in water and hurl it at him. He wanted to see the wet marks left on his bat to find out whether he middle the ball correctly.

-->A prankster, he once put a hose pipe into Saurav Ganguly's room and turned the tap on. Ganguly awoke to find his gear floating. Calls Ganguly babu mashai,Saurav calls him chhota babu.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Women’s cricket in India….

As a cricket lovers we are indulge only in men’s cricket and we applaud men’s cricket only. Many of us probably don’t know the fact that we also have women cricket team as well. We have a very good women’s cricket team and it has done reasonably well. They also play all the 3 formats of the game viz. Test Match, ODIs and T20.

The Indian women's cricket team first appeared in a Test match in 1976-77 season against West Indies, six match series ended in a draw. They also performed much better than expected in the Women's Cricket World Cup 2005, reaching the finals but then losing to Australia. In 2005 they won their second Women's Asia Cup, played in Pakistan. That tournament featured the first-ever match between the Indian and Pakistani women's teams as well. They toured England in 2006, winning the Test series 1-0, winning the Twenty20 international, but losing the ODI series 4-0.

Our Indian women cricket team captain is Jhulan Goswami who is an all-rounder. She made her debut in the year 2000. She won ICC women’s player of the year award in 2007. She became fourth bowler in women’s cricket to achieve the feat of 100 wickets in ODIs in 2008. Another cricketer named Mithali Raj, is a World Record holder in terms of highest individual score in test match innings. She scored 214 against England in 2002 at the tender age of 19 playing in his only 3rd test match. Mithali was involved in another world record partnership of 157 for the seventh wicket with Jhulan Goswami (62) in the same match.

Till 2007 women cricket was ran by separate body Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI). But ICC took the initiative and asked the respective cricket boards to include the women’s cricket as well under their banner. This had immediate effect and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took over the women’s cricket. Now BCCI runs both men and women cricket. The money situation was not that great till the women’s cricket was separate body. For long the players had to depend on their jobs mostly with Railways and Air India and survive on paltry daily allowances. Now situation has changed and women players are getting decent money although not as big as male players are getting.

Till 2007 women cricketers of the country could draw few pay-cheques. In All-India Women's Knock-Out Cricket Tournament organised by BCCI, all the players of the ten teams that had participated got their first dues.Thanks to the BCCI initiative, players who took part in that tournament got Rs 1500 per match. The amount looks insignificant when compared to what their male counterparts get when they play in a domestic tournament, a male domestic player gets Rs 4000 per day for a Ranji match which means that a Ranji player pockets a total of Rs 16,000 at the end of four days. Sounds a bit unfair, keeping in mind that the women also bowl 50 overs, the boundary line is the same, the umpires are also of the same standard as in the men's tournament. Everything seems to be the same but the money. This, though, hardly shakes the confidence of the women as they used to play even when they were not paid anything. Indian women cricket has also brought lot of glory to the country.

Anjum Chopra, the member of Indian women cricket team asked for the separate IPL like tournament for women as well and their demand is correct as well. If male cricketers can make big bucks out of IPL then female players also deserves big bucks. Although women cricket is under BCCI regime but it is not marketed well enough. Time has come to market the women cricket properly, so that many more girls take cricket seriously and this will also help in reducing inequalities between male and female, which unfortunately still prevails in our society. Its time to attract women towards cricket and tournament like IPL for women will do wonders in promoting women’s cricket. Women has achieved lot of glory in other sports like badminton, tennis, athletics and time has come now to support women cricket and make it as popular as women tennis and women badminton. Its strange that, in a cricket crazy nation like India, women’s cricket is still searching its soul and honour.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

New look West Indies will take on mercurial Pakistan

After success in one off T20 game new look West Indian team will take on mercurial Pakistan in 1st ODI at St. Lucia. Many big names will be missing from this ODI series which reduces its glamour but its a chance for new players to showcase their talent and establish themselves in their respective sides.

West Indies will not feature Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo in this ODI while Pakistan has not included Umar Gul, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal. After loss in one off T20 game Pakistan will look to start this ODI series with a win while West Indies will be hoping of good performance from its youngsters. This series lost in hullaballoo of IPL but it is important series for West Indies and Pakistan. West Indies dropped players like Gayle, Sarwan Chanderpaul while Pakistan rested Younis Khan and Umar Gul.

Pakistan reached the semis of World Cup 2011 and playing very good cricket so far. While West Indies had disastrous World Cup campaign where they managed to reached the quarter-finals but couldn’t progress further. West Indian cricket also got involved in controversy by dropping its star players especially Chris Gayle, who showed his form other night at Edens. It is important match and series for few youngsters from both the teams. From Pakistan Wahab Riaz, Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Salman(WK) will be under radar. From West Indian perspective all eyes will be on Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Kirk Edward, Devendra Bishoo and Andre Russell.

Pitch at St. Lucia will be slower and certainly help the spinners, Saeed Ajmal and Devendra Bishoo will certainly play big role in this game. Pakistan got out of the controversy of match-fixing and now Afridi will certainly look to take this young Pakistani team to new heights. While West Indies is building the side for future. Pakistan won 3 matches from last 5 they played while West Indies won 2 matches out of last 5. West Indies lost their last ODI against Pakistan in World Cup 2011 quarter-final at Mirpur and that give little edge to Pakistan but win in T20 game certainly given little hope to Darren Sammy and his boys.

Squads:

1 Devon Smith, 2 Lendl Simmons, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Kirk Edwards, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Carlton Baugh (wk), 8 Darren Sammy (capt), 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Ravi Rampaul

1 Taufeeq Umar, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Asad Shafiq, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq, 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Hammad Azam, 7 Mohammad Salman (wk), 8 Shahid Afridi (capt), 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Tanvir Ahmed, 11 Saeed Ajmal.

Confident KXIP will take on depleted Delhi at Kotla

Magical story of KXIP continues as they are now in top 4 on points table and what a performance against all expectations. 3 wins out of 4 is commendable achievement for the team which don’t have many stars. On the contrary Delhi Daredevils performance has been under scanner as they lost too many matches. 1 win from 4 matches is not good for the team which has players like Sehwag, Warner, Finch, Morne Morkel and Irfan Pathan.

Today Delhi will take on KXIP at Feroze Shah Kotla in Delhi. Daredevils in all sorts of trouble and their problems have been futher compounded because their captain and dashing opener Virender Sehwag failed to fire with the bat. Delhi team is much better if compared to Kochi, Rajasthan or Punjab atleast on paper but their performance is not upto the mark. One of the main reason why Sehwag is not scoring, is the shoulder injury which he is carrying for a long time and this injury stops him from playing free flowing shots which he likes to play. So shoulder injury is hampering Viru’s performance but franchisee pressure and big money forcing him to play in IPL. Delhi’s top-order is very inconsistent and it is Venugopal Rao who comes in at No.5 is scoring most of the runs for them. Naman Ojha, David Warner, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan failed to make any impression with the bat so far. Delhi have to win today’s game at any cost, it will be going to be an uphill task because KXIP is in winning rhythm. They have to think of promoting in-form Venugopal Rao.

Looking at KXIP, its dream run for them. After loss in their 1st game of IPL everybody written-off KXIP, but what a surprise turnaround by them. After first loss they just kept on winning match after match and recorded hat-trick of victory. Names which were unknown before this IPL are suddenly in lime-light. Adam Gilchrist has done great job as a captain because it is very difficult to win the games with inexperienced and new players. Confidence of KXIP is sky high after 3 consecutive win. Valthaty is the one man who deserves big credit after Gilchrist, because his century against CSK given hopes to KXIP. Valthaty is orange cap holder and it is commendable achievement for any young cricketer. One more ‘Valthaty Special’ is expected today. KXIP now looks like a settled side and they are playing like a unit but on paper Delhi looks far more strong.

Great contest in offering as Delhi will be keen to break the shackles in this match and KXIP will try to continue their winning momentum.

Team Info:

Delhi Daredevils

Virender Sehwag (Captain), Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha(Wicket-Keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Venugopal Rao, Aavishkar Salvi, Prashant Naik, Rajesh Pawar, Robin Bist, S Sriram, Tejashwi Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Vikash Mishra, Vivek Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem (Foreign) David Warner, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Aaron Finch, Mathew Wade, Roloef van der Merwe, Andrew McDonald, Travis Birt, Collin Ingram, Robert Frylinck. Greg Shipperd(Coach)

Team Info:

Kings XI Punjab

Dinesh Karthik(Wicket-Keeper), Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty, Shalabh Srivastava, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Amit Yadav, (Foreign) Adam Gilchrist (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Stuart Broad, Ryan Harris, Dimitri Masceranhas, Nathan Remington.Michael Bevan(Coach

Gayle Hurricane blew away Knights.

Finally RCB broke the shackles and registered their 2nd win in the tournament. Their gamble of playing Gayle also paid off as Gayle blew away his ex-team by hitting big booming sixes. He also gave befitting reply to Kolkata Knight Riders and West Indian Cricket Board.

Chasing 171 of Kolkata score, RCB started their innings cautiously. First Dilshan opened his hands and hit few boundaries but once Gayle started hitting the ball, Kolkata bowling looked mediocre as none of the bowlers spared. It was Gayle show all the way as he scored brilliant century which included 7 towering sixes. He hit two of the longest sixes of the tournament as one of them gone 104 mt. far and another gone for 101 mt far. Virat Kohli and Dilshan also played good innings but both innings over-shadowed by Gayle’s clean hitting. He literally massacred the Kolkata bowling and won the game single-handedly for RCB which was struggling to win the games before this match.

Earlier Kolkata fielded Brad Haddin in place Brett Lee. Haddin and Kallis opened the batting for Kolkata and both provided quick and solid start to the Knight Riders but just when they looked settled Haddin got out out to Aravind. Kallis and Gambhir continued their innings but soon Kallis became victim of Daniel Vettori. Gayle took absolute blinder in covers to sent Kallis back. Pathan Joined Gambhir and both build fantastic partnership. Kolkata reached the score of 170 plus which looked like winning score on the pitch which turned square in previous matches and forced Gambhir to drop pacer like Brett Lee. Pathan once again played superb innings and scored brilliant half-century.Not playing Brett Lee in this match certainly back-fired.

But 170+ score couldn’t help Kolkata to win the game as the man called Gayle was in no mood to do anything silly and he left Shahrukh Khan with a question, why didn’t you pick me in the auction? RCB won the match with 9 wickets.

Man of the Match

Chris Gayle

Mumbai Indians were too good for Super Kings

It was the match where bowling and batting of the both the teams were quite par but it was fielding which decided the fate of this match. Mumbai Indians fielded brilliantly and created the opportunities for themselves while Super Kings failed to grab the opportunities which came their way.

Dhoni won the toss for CSK and put Mumbai Indians into bat. Soon his decision gave him result as both Sachin and Sathish got out within six overs. Morkel and Bollinger bowled one of the best opening spell of the tournament. Mumbai again tried new opening partner with Sachin but experiment failed once again. Mumbai Indians are winning matches but they failed to find out perfect opening partner for Sachin so far. They tried David Jacobs, James Franklin, Ambati Rayadu and R.Sathish without any success. Rohit Sharma came in after Sachin’s departure and he had other ideas. He came in and took charge of the situation immediatley and played some gorgeous shot on a pitch which had some help for the seamers. It was Rohit’s brilliant innings which bailed Mumbai Indians from the shock of 2 early wickets. Ambati Rayadu also didn’t last long. But Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds stitched superb partnership and achieved the par score of 164. Bollinger was pick of the bowler for CSK as he kept the pressure on. Albie Morkel bowled well in his first spell of 3 overs. It was good bowling performance from CSK.

Chasing 165, Murali Vijay once again failed to impress. Raina came and gone without troubling the scorers much as Harbhajan caught him off his own bowling and CSK lost their 2 wickets for 36 runs in 5 overs. Badirnath and Hussey kept CSK in hunt as both scored freely after early loss of Raina and Vijay. But Pollard who failed with the ball took brilliant catch of Hussey at short mid-wicket and opened the gate for Mumbai. Confidence of that catch also looked in Pollad’s next over as he sent back captain Dhoni cheaply who got out unluckily. Rohit Sharma took blinder at third-man to dismiss Dhoni. After that it was all Harbhajan show as he tormented CSK middle and lower order and ended up with IPL career best figures of 5-18. 3 wickets in space of 5 balls decided the fate of CSK. Badrinath played superb innings but did not get enough support from other end.

Finally CSK lost their 3rd match on a trot and Mumbai Indians are sitting on top with 8 points While CSK is 2nd from the bottom. Mumbai Indians also took perfect revenge of their last year’s IPL final loss.

Man of the Match

Rohit Sharma

Friday, April 22, 2011

West Indies vs Pakistan series kicked-off yesterday with T20 game. Schedule and Squad.

Important series between West Indies and Pakistan kicked-off yesterday with T20 game at Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia. New look West Indies team won this game and Pakistan failed to open the account with a win. Pakistan lost to the completely reformed West Indian team. It was great game of T20 which lost in hype of IPL.

It's just one match, which will fade into obscurity by the end of the next, but West Indies began their latest New Era impressively, beating Pakistan by seven runs in the first ever Twenty20 match between the teams. Lendl Simmons made 65 to help West Indies set a competitive total before Devendra Bishoo's four wickets brought them victory. It was Ottis Gibson's desperation for renewal after a disastrous World Cup campaign that five fresh players were included in the squad. Chris Gayle, the former captain, who vented his frustration with Gibson and the WICB by joining Royal Challengers Bangalore and issuing a withering assessment of both in a radio interview. The off-field wrangling dominated the build-up to the match and is likely to rumble on for some time to come but West Indies fans could at least enjoy a moment of win.

Such drama is familiar to Pakistan but of late they have been alarmingly stable. Their last game was a passionate spectacle against India in the World Cup semi-final in Mohali, so they could be forgiven for looking a little underwhelmed by St Lucia. Very few spectators showed up but those who did were on the ground, treated to an entertaining opening from Simmons. Filling the big hole left by Gayle's absence he scored 65 from 44 balls and shared a 99-run stand for the second wicket with a fluent Darren Bravo, who made 42.The pair struck 15 boundaries between them, which proved crucial as West Indies collapsed in familiar fashion after they were separated.

Darren Sammy ensured Pakistan's chase got off on the wrong foot as he had Mohammad Hafeez caught at fine leg for 3 before Ahmed Shehzad spooned Ravi Rampaul to mid-on for 12. Asad Shafiq tried to revive the Pakistan innings with Umar Akmal before Bishoo picked up two wickets in his first over. Shafiq was nicely caught for 25 by Danza Hyatt at midwicket, before Misbah-ul-Haq was dismissed for a golden duck while treading on his stumps a ball later. Mixing his pace and flight nicely Bishoo got his third wicket when Shahid Afridi played a cut to point on 12 to leave Pakistan in sorts of trouble

Having reached a run-a-ball 41, Umar was victim to his own misunderstanding. The previous delivery he had alerted the umpires to a no-ball caused by West Indies not having the required three men in the ring but, thinking the following ball was a free-hit, swung Rampaul to Marlon Samuels on the square-leg boundary. Umar lingered but the umpires this time knew better.What should have been a doddle from there for West Indies became tense, as Rampaul's no-ball-ridden penultimate over cost 15, but Andre Russell held his nerve in the final over to seal victory.

The lacklustre showing from Pakistan's batsmen was in sharp contrast to Simmons and Bravo. Happy to use their feet, both were proficient against the pace and spin and used the small boundaries to good effect. West Indies passed 100 in the 13th over and looked set to post a really significant total but a trademark collapse punctured the optimism. Bravo holed out to long-on off Abdur Rehman before Simmons was run out by Samuels two overs later. Samuels, on his comeback after serving a two-year ban for alleged involvement with illegal bookmakers, endured a torrid time as he laboured to 4 from 11 balls before running past a Saeed Ajmal doosra. Sammy followed quickly for 1 and it needed a last-over boundary to take the total past 150. Pakistan looked to have the edge but Bishoo ensured otherwise.

It was indeed a great performance by new look West Indian team which proved selectors decision correct atleast in this match.

Pakistan have to play 5 ODIs and 2 Test Matches on this tour. ODIs will star from April 23, 2011.

Detailed Fixtures are as under:

Date	Time	Match	Venue
Mon Apr 18	10:00 local 19:30 IST	Uni. of WI Vice Chancellor's XI vs Pakistan	Mindoo Phillip Park, St Lucia
Thu Apr 21	09:30 local 19:00 IST	T20I - West Indies v Pakistan	Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia
Sat Apr 23	09:30 local 19:00 IST	1st ODI - West Indies v Pakistan	Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia
Mon Apr 25	09:30 local 19:00 IST	2nd ODI - West Indies v Pakistan	Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia
Thu Apr 28	09:30 local 19:00 IST	3rd ODI - West Indies v Pakistan	Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados
Mon May 2	09:30 local 19:00 IST	4th ODI - West Indies v Pakistan	Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados
Thu May 5	09:30 local 19:00 IST	5th ODI - West Indies v Pakistan	Providence Stadium, Guyana
Sun May 8 - Mon May 9	10:00 local 19:30 IST	TBC v Pakistanis	Bourda, Georgetown, Guyana
Thu May 12 - Mon May 16	10:00 local 19:30 IST	1st Test - West Indies v Pakistan	Providence Stadium, Guyana
Fri May 20 - Tue May 24	10:00 local 19:30 IST	2nd Test - West Indies v Pakistan	Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts

ODI Squads:

Shahid Afridi(Captain), Abdur Rehman,Ahmed Shehzad, Asad Shafiq, Hammad Azam, Junaid Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Salman(Wicket- Keeper), Sadaf Hussain, Saeed Ajmal, Tanvir Ahmed, Taufeeq Umar, Umar Akmal, Usman Salahuddin, Wahab Riaz, Aizaz Cheema.

Darren Sammy(Captain), Carlton Baugh, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Devnedra Bishoo, Kirk Edwards, Ravi Rampaul, Anthony Martin, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith, Devon Thomas.

KXIP dumped Royals to register 3rd straight win.

Unlucky day for Rajasthan Royals as nothing gone their way and lucky day for KXIP as everything fell in place. KXIP now registered 3rd straight win in the tournament and climbed to the 3rd spot and joined Kolkata, Kochi and Mumbai on points table. Rajasthan slipped one place and now on No.5 on points table.

Royals won the toss and elected to field first. Soon they got the breakthrough when Trivedi bowled Gilchrist but there was twist in tale as it was declared no-ball and Gilchrist was lucky enough to survive. Soon Shaun Tait got the wicket of Valthaty but Royals bad-luck continued as this ball was also declared no-ball. After getting reprieve Valthaty and Gilchrist just counter-attacked Royals bowling mercilessly as duo put on 67 runs in just 5 overs.Valthaty once again showed his class and his consistent run with the bat continued which also earned him orange cap as he got past Sachin Tendulkar and became highest run-getter in IPL 4. Finally partnership was broken as Watson picked up Gilchrist. But Royals woes continued as Shaun Marsh straight away attacked the Rajasthan bowlers and played shots all over the park.

In the meantime Valthaty continued his heroics and finally fell to Shane Warne who gave him few verbals as well. At 15th over KXIP reached the score of 169 and it looked ominous that KXIP, easily get past the 200 mark but Royals came back strongly and reduced KXIP to 195. Siddharth Trivedi and Shane Warne were the costliest bowler for Rajasthan Royals as both of them given more than 50 runs of their bowling. Tait and Watson were the most economical bowlers. Shane Warne also picked up his 50th IPL wicket and became 2nd bowler to do so after R.P Singh.

Chasing score of 195 on a flat deck looked easy but Royals batsmen made the mess of the target as they kept losing wickets at regular interval. Once again Shane Watson was barred from opening the innings as Swapnil Asnodkar who replaced Paunikar opened the batting with Rahul Dravid. But Dravid, Asnodkar, Watson and Taylor fell in succession and put the Royals in losing situation but young Ashok Menaria and Stuart Binny did the 50 runs partnership which kept some hopes alive for Rajasthan but increasing run-rate pressure forced Menaria and Binny to play the false strokes and after the departure of Menaria and Binny writing was on wall for Rajasthan and finally Rajasthan faced their third loss in six matches and KXIP registered 3rd consecutive victory.

It was unlucky day for Rajasthan Royals where they got the wickets off no-balls, they fielded poorly, batting did not clicked and they dropped too many catches.

Man of the Match

Shaun Marsh

Top of the table KKR will take on bottom of the table RCB.

Another exciting battle on the cards at Edens today as depleted RCB will take on jubilant KKR. At the moment KKR is on top of the table with 6 points and RCB is lying on bottom of the table with 2 points. As far as RCB is concerned it is unfortunate that they are at bottom, looking at their team composition they are the most formidable team in this tournament, so it is surprising that RCB has registered just 1 win from their 4 matches.

After loss against Kochi Tuskers, KKR will go into this match with little caution as no one expected them to get the defeat at the hands of Kochi but that happened. It was poor batting which forced their downfall against Kochi. KKR is one team which looks quite formidable this year. They have great team composition which has mixed blend of youth and experienced players. KKR has won 3 matches out of 5 so far in this edition of IPL. KKRs main reason for loss in last match was the early wickets of Kallis and Gambhir who have given them great starts so far in the tournament. Form of Kallis is little concern now as he failed to score in last 2 matches and he is one player who is capable of holding the innings. But Kallis is class act and he will certainly get among the runs today against his ex-team. Manoj Tiwary’s form is excellent and he is improving with every game. KKR bowling is also quite formidable as they have Brett Lee and Balalji who are bowling well at the moment and backed up well by their spinners, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan and Iqbal Abdulla. KKR batting is strong and very deep and that is big advantage to them. Only thing they require is good start from their openers.They have to replace Bisla with young Shreevats Goswami as Bisla failed to improve his batting and Goswami is far better batsmen than Bisla. Also it will give advantage of left-right combination because Goswami is left-hander and he is very good wicket-keeper as well.

Well what to say about RCB. It’s a dream team for any owner certainly. It has likes of Virat Kohli, AB DeVilliers, Tillkaratane Dilshan, Saurabh Tiwary, Cheteshwar Pujara in their ranks. While bowling consists of Zaheer Khan, Daniel Vettori, Charl Langeveldt. Its great team but not clicking as a unit. Inclusion of Gayle will further bolster their batting line-up; It is one team which was expected to win consistently but to everybody’s surprise they failed to make any kind of impact in the tournament. Vijay Mallaya reformed this team completely but yet failed to get the desired results, now whom he will sack. RCB is in pathetic situation and they have to start winning games. One more loss and path towards semis will become more difficult. They have to win against KKR today at any cost as they can’t afford to lose any more matches. They have to gain the momentum and that will happen only by winning the games. So far they relying on two bowlers heavily and only 2 bowlers can’t win match for any team. Team needs efforts from all the members in order to win, so their other bowlers have to perform and provide support to Zaheer Khan and Daniel Vettori.

KKR will certainly have little advantage today and they will be keen to rub the memories of last game while RCB will try to win at any cost today.

Team Info:

Kolkata Knightriders

Gautam Gambhir(Captain), Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Jaidev Unadkat, Iqbal Abdulla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manvinder Singh Bisla(Wicket-Keeper), Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Sarabjit Ladda, Shami Ahmed, Shreevats Goswami (Foreign) Jacques Kallis, Brad Haddin(Wicket-Keeper), Shakib Al Hassan, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate, James Pattinson.Dave Whatmore(Coach)

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)

Chennai Super Kings to play buoyant Mumbai Indians

It is going to be a sequel of last year’s IPL final. Dhoni’s Kings will take on Sachin’s Indians today at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Right now Mumbai Indians are on No.2 on the points table with 3 wins under belt from four matches. While CSK is on No.8 after 2 wins and 2 losses from 4 matches they played so far. Its also revenge time as Mumbai Indians will certainly look to take revenge of last year’s final.

Looking at Mumbai Indians, it is fantastic team and doing very well in the tournament so far. Mumbai Indians are coming into this match with win under their belt over Pune Warriors India. Captain Sachin Tendulkar is in sub-lime form and Ambati Rayadu is also playing well. Mumbai Indians have class players in their ranks and their batting is far better than some of the other teams in the tournament with Sachin firing from the top. They have hitters like James Franklin, Pollard and Symonds. Youngsters like Jacobs, Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayadu. They have fantastic bowling line-up which boasts of slinga Malinga, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Abu Nechim and Ali Murtaza. Mumbai Indians is the most balanced side in the tournament and their performance in the tournament is evidence of that. Icing on the cake is batting of Sachin Tendulkar whose sheer presence on the crease certainly demoralise the opposition team.

Defending champions CSK did not live upto their reputation of Champions so far as they lost 2 matches out of 4. After making great start in the tournament they lost their way somewhat. This match is very crucial for them to regain that lost momentum. They have great batting line-up and also have very good bowling attack. They have magical captain in Dhoni who lead them to the title win in last edition. Today they will be playing against the team whom they beat in last edition’s final. CSK possess the likes of Mike Hussey, Raina and Dhoni who are great batsmen in shorter version of the game and they have crisis manager in Badrinath who often bail them out of the trouble. They have good bowlers in their ranks as well. Morkel, Bollinger, Jakati, Suraj Randiv, R.Ashwin are capable enough to get wickets anywhere. Fielding is one of the strong aspect of CSK compared to o0ther teams. Today’s game against Mumbai is very crucial for CSK and they have to win to regain that lost momentum.

Mumbai Indians will certainly have little edge in this game and CSK have to play hard to win this game.

Team Info:

Mumbai Indians

Sachin Tendulkar (c), Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Ali Murtuza, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pawan Suyal, Rajagopal Sathish, Surul Kanwar, Surya Kumar Yadav, T Suman, Yazvendra Singh Chahal, (Foreign) Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds, Davy Jacobs, James Franklin, Moises Henriques, Alden Blizzard, Dilhara Fernando

Team Info:

Chennai Super Kings

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha(Wicket-Keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramanium Badrinath, Joginder Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Aniruddha Shrikant, Ganapathi Vignesh, K Vasudevdas, Shadb Jakati, Vijaykumar Yomahesh, (Foreign) Albie Morkel, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Doug Bollinger, Scott Styris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis. Stephen Fleming(Coach)

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Is it going to be a Valthaty show once again? KXIP vs RR

Jubilant Priety Zinta owned and Gilchrist led KXIP will take on Warnie’s Royals at Mohali tonight. KXIP is full of confidence after two consecutive victories and Rajasthan is bit disappointed after 2 losses at the hands of KKR and washed out match against RCB where they shared the points with RCB.

If we look at KXIP it was not considered best team at the start of the tournament. They also started their IPL 4 campaign with a loss but after that 1st game, their turnaround is superb and credit largely goes to young rising star Paul Valthaty whose all-round performance helped KXIP to put up a brilliant show. Captain Gilchrist also got among the runs in the last match where he struck beautiful half-century and reminded spectators about his glorious past and proved that he is still great with the bat. KXIP now looks quite formidable and T20 is such a format where any team have the chance to win the game. KXIP also have reasonable bowling attack. Praveen Kumar has made a great comeback through IPL after missing the World Cup due to injuries. Ryan Harris and Piyush Chawla are also very good bowlers. So KXIP have the flavour to do well in today's game. However, form of Shaun Marsh is bit of concern who is their mainstay in batting after Gilchrist and Valthaty.

Talking about Rajasthan Royals, it is also owned by one of the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Rajasthan Royals started its IPL 4 campaign by winning first two matches but after that they lost their way somewhat. They lost 2 games consecutively against reformed KKR and their last match against RCB was washed out due to rain and they shared the points with RCB. RR is still in Top 4 and their situation is not that bad. If they win today they can get the momentum. They have better team on-paper compared to KXIP. The have likes of Watson, Dravid, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Shaun Tait, etc. in their ranks and with Warne performing, just add the little bit more spice to the Rajasthan Royals.I think they have to change their bowling and bring in Deepak Chahar in place of Amit Singh who looked out of sorts in last 2 matches. Chahar is young and waiting for his opportunity. Considering today’s game Rajasthan Royals have little bit edge over KXIP.

It going to be cracker of the contest and it will be interesting to see Valthaty continues his good show or not.

Team Info:

Kings XI Punjab

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).

Pune lost 2nd consecutive game. Mumbai’s good run continues.

Indeed a very good match and lasted till last ball. Yuvraj won the toss and elected to bat first but Mumbai wicket offered little bit more assistance to the bowlers this time. Mumbai bowlers took full advantage of the wicket. Harbhajan was rested from the game because of little and his replacement Abu Nechim grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he got the dismissed the inform Pune opener Jesse Ryder in his first over. He went on to pick up 2nd wicket and this early loss never allowed Pune to recover as Munaf Patel and Malinga further jolted the Pune batting. Captain Yuvraj failed miserably today as he got out on the 2nd ball he faced. Utthappa played very good innings and given some hope to Pune Warriors but he too lost his wicket at crucial juncture and ultimately Pune Warriors bowled out cheaply. Looking at the condition of wicket, it looked like Pune Warriors will stop Mumbai Indians before the target.

Mumbai opened with Franklin who replaced Jacobs in this match but he did not lasted long and soon got out. Ambati Rayadu and Sachin Tendulkar kept doing their good work and stitched the partnership but Sachin lost his wicket by playing unnecessary shot on pitch which had something in it for the bowlers. Sachin first time got out in this edition of the IPL. Ambati Rayadu soon followed Sachin and got out but till that time Mumbai reached the doorstep of victory. Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds won the game for Mumbai.

Man of the Match

Munaf Patel

Kochi registered 3rd consecutive win in a near thriller

Orange colour is on high since last 3 matches. They humbled Mumbai and Chennai earlier and yesterday they stopped the winning streak of KKR at Edens. It was completely a team work which helped Kochi in registering their 3rd consecutive win and now they are in Top 4 on points table with 6 points.

Ravindra Jadeja came up with a brilliant all-round display to help the resurgent Kochi Tuskers Kerala halt Kolkata Knight Riders three-match winning run with a narrow six-run victory in a low-scoring Indian Premier League clash here on Wednesday.Jadeja was the star for the Kochi team as he scored 29 from 18 balls to help his team post 132 for seven and then scalped two wickets as the Tuskers restricted the Knight Riders to 126 for nine at the Eden gardens here. Gambhir won the toss and put Kochi into bat, Kochi had a flying start, thanks to the in-form pair of Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene but the Knight Riders restricted them to 132 for seven with a fine bowling effort by Yusuf Pathan and Shakib-Al-Hasan. Defending the total, the Tuskers bowlers Jadeja , Rudra Pratap Singh did a tidy job and was supported well by their bowling colleagues as Kochi halted Kolkata's three-match winning run at the Eden Gardens here.

Chasing a modest 133, Knight Riders needed to play sensible cricket but the hosts made a mess of the seemingly low score getting themselves out one by one.Three quick wickets from three overs Jacques Kallis , Gautam Gambhir and Manvinder Bisla put Knight Riders in a spot of bother.Knight Riders batting mainstay Kallis became victim of a Vinay Kumar short ball, while in a space of five balls Gambhir saw his middle stump shattered by his former India teammate RP Singh Brought in place of Thisara Perera, Muralitharan returned with one wicket but he held the Knight Riders batsmen together giving away 18 runs from his four overs quota. Just when the duo of Tiwary and Morgan were looking to set the platform, a fine fielding effort by skipper Mahela Jayawardene ran Morgan out to break their 36-run partnership from 38 balls.However, undeterred Tiwary hit two fluent boundaries off RP but only to see Shakib getting bowled at the other end in the same over.Pathan, who hurt his knee while taking the catch of Jadeja, came in with a runner and the big-hitter showed his intention with a big six of Powar before being dismissed in the next ball, in what seemed to be a decisive blow for the Knight Riders.Tiwary, who looked at ease all this while, was then outfoxed by a smart wide ball by Jadeja and was stumped.

With Tiwary gone and Knight Riders at 101/7, it was just a formality for the Tuskers to complete the victory.

Man of the Match

Ravindra Jadeja

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Kochi making giant strides in IPL 4

Kochi beat last year’s runner-up Mumbai Indians to register their first win and registered their 2nd consecutive win by defeating defending champions Chennai Super Kings yesterday at Kochi. Kochi Tuskers started their IPL campaign on a sad note as they lost their first 2 matches and written-off completely by cricket pundits. But this team has made giant strides after first tow losses and now playing like a champions. Great turnaround indeed.

Kochi won the toss and elected to field first and soon this decision of Mahela Jayawardene proved right when Kochi got the wicket of most prolific CSK batsmen Mike Hussey. Raina and Vijay tried to build the partnership but Vijay carried away too much and caught plumb in front of the wicket while playing across the line. At this point rain interrupted and when game resume it was shortened by 3 overs each innings. Badrinath departed soon after the rain break and MS Dhoni joined Raina. The way both of them playing it looked like CSK will post huge total but at wrong juncture Raina got run-out after scoring brilliant 50. Morkel and Dhoni carried the innings but CSK was reduced to 131 in their allotted 17 overs and D/L method set the target of 135 for Kochi.

Jayawardene and McCullum once again gave superb start to Kochi innings and took the score to 40. Jayawardene tried to clear the infield but caught at covers in the bowling of Ashwin. Parthiv Patel got the promotion and he came to bat at No.3. McCullum and Patel did fantastic partnership and put the Kochi Tuskers at the doorstep of victory before getting out. After that it was easy for Jadeja and Hodge to finish the game quickly and they did that in style. It was fantastic display of team-work by Kochi as they registered their 2nd win of the tournament and it was unlucky on the part of CSK that rain interrupted at wrong time and robbed the CSK momentum.

It was great win for Kochi and now Kochi Tuskers have gained the great momentum and looks threatening for other teams. CSK have to work hard on their game and have to grab the opportunities which comes their way if they want to retain their champions title.

Man of the Match

Brendon McCUllum

Deccan and Delhi will fight to get up from the bottom.

Deccan and Delhi are the two teams which is languishing at the bottom of the table and these teams will fight to recover from bottom of the table. Both teams have on 1 victory under their belt though they have lot of talented players in their side.

It’s a home game for Delhi so wicket will going to be slow and low which means it will assist the spinners. Delhi Daredevil will rely heavily on their openers Sehwag and Warner to give them quick and solid start because their middle-order is bit weak. If captain Sehwag and Warner play out the first 10 overs then it will going to be easy for Delhi to post or chase any score. Form of Venugopal is also very good from the Delhi perspective. Venugopal is the unsung hero of Delhi team. Delhi also have likes of Naman Ojha, Aaron Fynch and Irfan Pathan who can score quick runs at the end. But all these batsmen have to apply themselves to get out of the messy situation. Delhi team is weak compared to last year but they are not that bad. If their top 2 batsmen fire then they will be able to beat any team in the tournament. Delhi team will go into this match with lot of confidence from their last win over Sahara Pune Warriors.

As far as Deccan is concern they are not clicking as a unit. They won only 1 game out of 4 they played so far and nothing is going their way. They won against RCB and broke the home jinx but lost the last match against Kings XI Punjab. They have very good players in their ranks and only thing needed from their perspective is to play sensibly and grab the opportunities they get in the field. They have very good captain in Sangakkara who is also one of the great batsmen. They have good bowling line-up which includes Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Daniel Christian. They have all the ingredients of champion team but only thing they lack is the focus. So they have to focus hard.

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)

Team Info:

Delhi Daredevils

Royal battle on the cards.

Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore started their campaign with win in this edition of IPL. Rajasthan even went on to win its second game as well but after that both the teams lost their way somewhat in the tournament and now playing catching game. RCB is far better side on paper compared to Rajasthan Royals but it is not firing at the moment. While Rajasthan is struggling with the injuries to its key players.

RCB have the best and strong batting line-up among all the teams playing in IPL. But their batting is not clicking according to their liking. Both Dilshan and DeVilliers are not firing simultaneously and last nail was put in the coffin by management as they are constantly changing the batting –order. I think if RCB have to win then they have stop experiments. Virat Kohli is in superb form and he is No.3 but why he is coming at No.4 is still a quiz. They have players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Saurabh Tiwary who can bat up the order but both are batting after No.5. AB DeVilliers is batting at No.5 is also sensless. RCB have to re-think their strategy and sent their best batsmen up the order rather than experimenting with pinch-hitters like Zaheer Khan and Asad Pathan. Bowling is also not clicking though they have quality bowlers in their ranks. Likes of Zaheer and Vettori can do wonders to any team but somehow bolwing is also under-fire. RCB have to lift their game today as they can’t afford to lose this game and they have little edge over Rajasthan Royals in terms of resources.

Rajasthan Royals lost twice to KKR after winning their first 2 games of the tournament. In the last match they were handicapped due to injuries. Rajasthan Royals are champions of first edition and they carry great reputation. They have to play right combination today and Shane Watson have to shoulder more responsibility with the bat. They have good hitters in their team. Ross Taylor and young Ashok Menaria can change the game in couple of overs if they get the great start. They also have to change their bowling combination little-bit by bringing in young Deepak Chahar who is in great form right now. Rajasthan Royals have magical captain in Warnie who is bowling at his best and this is a big advantage.

So it will going to be Royal battle today.

Team Info: