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

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)

---

Warnie magic worked again. Tendulkar and Rayadu shines in Mumbai win.

Warnie magic worked again.

Winning 2 out of 2 is the story of Rajasthan Royals and Losing 2 out of 2 is the story of Delhi Daredevils. So far Delhi Daredevils looked completely out of sorts in IPL 4 and Sehwag not firing from the top is hurting them even more. Delhi Daredevils are paying  price of the mistakes done by their owners who didn’t retain their star players except Sehwag and bought the players who don’t have much ability. One or two brilliant performances here and there will not going to help much. So Daredevils and Sehwag have to come good in coming matches. Venugopal Rao and David Warner saved Delhi yesterday from embarrassment as both help Delhi to reach respectable total.  Rao played the innings of IPL 4 yesterday and Warner also shined but those efforts gone in vain as Rajasthan Royals win the match convincingly as Delhi bowling was completely out of sorts just like their top-order batting.

Warnie’s magic worked again and under his captaincy Rajasthan Royals is doing quite well. Whatever Warne is doing as captain is giving him optimum results. If we talk about personal performance of Warne, He is spot on every time he comes to bowl. Yesterday Warnie picked up 2 wickets in one over and put the Delhi on  back-foot. So Warnie is leading from the front and that is creating magic in this team as every player is determined to do well. Apart from Warnie’s captaincy, Shaun Tait bowled the fastest delivery in India which clocked around 157.7 Kms, quite thrilling that delivery was. At this moment Rajasthan Royals looks formidable side. Rahul Dravid played brilliant knock of 38 yesterday. He was positive in his approach and played the shots all over the park. His classy batting showed that T20 is not only about bang-bang. Its more than that and if you play good cricketing shots then also you can succeed in T20.

Delhi left with lot of soul searching and Rajasthan is full of confidence and slowly becoming the force in IPL 4.

Man of the Match

Shane Warne

Tendulkar and Rayadu shines in Mumbai win.

Genius of  Tendulkar did it again for Mumbai. Mumbai registered comprehensive win over formidable Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mumbai is repeating its IPL 3 performance in IPL-4. They have won 2 out of 2 and now topping the points table.Tendulkar is in sublime form and that doing wonders for Mumbai. If we look at Top 2 teams in IPL 4 there is great similarity in their success.  Rajasthan Royals won 2 out of 2 and Warne is leading from the front and same is the case with Mumbai Indians as well. Sachin is performing and Mumbai is winning. Tendulkar ended up with brilliant half-century and he also helped young Rayadu to play the dream innings. Rayadu played fantastic innings and never looked in any kind of trouble. It was clearly Tendulkar effect. Tendulkar shared his Man of the Match award with Rayadu which was again great gesture from great cricketer.

Malinga once again provided early breakthrough to Mumbai Indians with his lethal toe crushing yorker. RCB was completely looked out of sorts against superb Mumbai bowling as free-flowing players like Dilshan and DeVilliers looked like tied down as they failed to score freely against Mumbai bowling. RCB posted small total for Mumbai to chase and Mumbai chased it down quite comfortably. So now RCB have 1 win and 1 loss under their belt. Mumbai also executed their plans well against Zaheer Khan as their opener Jacobs went after Zaheer Khan initially and negated his effect completely. That was really master tactic from Mumbai Indians which helped them in winning this match quite easily.

Man of the Match

Sachin Tendulkar

Kings XI will face Super Kings.

After disappointing start to their IPL 4 campaign Kings XI Punjab will face defending champions Chennai Super Kings in Mohali. Chennai is a very formidable team to beat, so it will going to be a tough task for Gilly and his boys to beat Super Kings. Under Dhoni’s magical captaincy Chennai has started it IPL 4 campaign on successful note as they beat formidable KKR in opening game. On paper CSK looks far better and settled team compared to Kings XI Punjab which has under gone complete make over. Kings XI looks very weak in IPL 4 if compared to last 3 seasons. Gilly’s captaincy is the only hope for them but Gilly as a batsmen is still a big doubt. In his prime Gilly was force to reckon but after retirement he looks ordinary with the bat.

Kings XI also don’t have big names in its line-up. Like Delhi Daredevils they also made the mistake and failed to buy right players for their cause. On the other hand Chennai retained their key players and bought the same players in the auction who played for them in last 3 seasons. Chennai is a far better and settled team and they are favourites in this contest.

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)

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)

Kochi will face Warriors challenge.

Kochi bowling have to show their mettle when they face formidable Sahara Pune Warriors in Navi Mumbai tonight. Batting came good for Kochi in the first match but it was their bowling which failed to defend 161 on pitch which had little assistance for the seamers. Sahara Pune is full of confidence after their win against Kings XI Punjab.

Kochi bowlers including Sreesanth have to fire because Kochi batting is quite good.  On the other hand Sahara Pune is having fantastic team and doing well under the leadership of Yuvraj Singh who is in tremendous form this season with both bat and ball. Sahara have very good batsmen in their ranks and that is helping them in excelling in this tournament. They already won their opening match while Kochi yet to open their account of victory in the tournament. Both teams have made their debut in IPL this year and it will be interesting to see who wins the battle today. Sahara Pune are favourites.

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)

Sahara Pune Warriors

Yuvraj Singh(Captain), Robin Uthappa(Wicket-Keeper), Ashish Nehra, Murali Kartik, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Bhuvenshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Ekalavya Dwivedi, Ganesh Gaikwad, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Harshad Khadiwale, Kamran Khan, Manish Pandey, Mithun Manhas, Mohnish MIshra, Rahul Sharma, Sachin Rana, Shrikant Wagh, Shrikant Mundhe, Imtiyaz Ahmed (Foreign) Graeme Smith, Tim Paine, Angelo Mathews, Nathan McCullum, Callum Ferguson, Wayne Parnell, Mitchell Marsh, Jerome Taylor, Alfonso Thomas, Jesse Ryder.Geoff Marsh(Coach)

Super-Sunday: Sachin will face Sehwag’s Challenge. Yuvraj’s boys will take on Adam’s boys.

 

Two more cracker of the contest coming up on Super Sunday. Lets have look first contest of Sunday. Its Sachin’s Mumbai Indians vs Sehwag’s Delhi Daredevils.

Mumbai Indians ended as runners-up in last season after wonderful run through the league phase where they hardly lost the game. Mumbai Indians retained their key players Sachin Tendulkar, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard and Harbhajan Singh. Although they failed to retain Zaheer Khan and lost him to Royal Challengers Bangalore. They bought Andrew Symonds this year which will add spice to this IPL edition because both Harbhajan and Symonds are team-mates now and will cheer each other. Monkey Gate saga is still fresh in the memory of cricket lovers when Symonds alleged Harbajan for making racial remarks against him in India – Australia series and matter got worse. Sachin also supported Harbhajan in that event and now Sachin will be captaining the Symonds. So interesting team formation.

The team sailed to the finals with spirited performances from Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo as well. But a mockery of a decision to hold back Pollard and inability to provide support to Sachin's lone fight cost the team badly and the trophy slipped from a sniffing distance in the final against Chennai Super Kings.his edition should be the time to bury the ghosts of past mishaps. But the loss of important players like Jayasuriya, Bravo, Saurabh Tiwary, Jean Paul Duminy and Zaheer Khan might be hard to cope with.The batting will revolve around Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, newly bought Aiden Blizzard, promising domestic players and a bunch of all-rounders.The Mumbai bowling has Lasith Malinga, Munaf Patel, Clint Mckay and Harbhajan Singh. Going through the list, if you thought this barrel was insufficient for mass consumption, think again!Move your eyes over their list of all-rounders. This team revels in its versatility. James Franklin, Moise Henriques, Symonds, Pollard, etc. can bat and bowl with equal ease while the likes of Rayudu and South African recruit David Jacobs are equally efficient both in front of the wicket and behind it.

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

Talking about Delhi Daredevils, on paper they were best team of the IPL for last 3 seasons. They had players like Dilhshan, Sehwag, Gambhir , Warner, Ab DeVilliers, Glen McGrath and list continues yet they failed to win the trophy. They didn’t even reached the finals in any of the 3 editions. So owners decided to revamp the team. They retained only Virender Sehwag wen bought new players in auction.The batting looks lackluster without their star players who played for DD in last 3 seasons. Except Virender Sehwag and David Warner, they have no famed face. Players like Unmukt Chand, Colin Ingram and Aaron Finch come with promise and dwell on hype but walking down the ramp will be an altogether different affair.The bowling seems shoddier with only Morne Morkel, Irfan Pathan and Roelof van der Merwe to talk about. The likes of Ashok Dinda and Ajit Agarkar will make things rosier but how wise would it be to rest hopes on them is a question every fan would ask.

The all-round skills of the team, however, is something to cheer for. Robert Frylink, another South African, is a hero back home. Van der Merwe and Irfan Pathan are good enough to be depended upon for a few good knocks and wickets here and there.For a pleasant thought, the wicket-keeper batsmen Mathew Wade and Naman Ojha should add smiles to the faces who know how important bits-and-pieces players are in this version of the game. This season of IPL is also important of player like Irfan Pathan who lost somewhere due to injuries and poor performance after wonderful start to his career against Australia in 2003-2004 season.

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

On paper Mumbai Indians looks much better team and Delhi Daredevils largely banks on heroics of Sehwag and Warner. Feroze Shah Kotla in Delhi will witness this cracker of the contest.

---

Yuvraj’s boys will take on Adam’s boys.

Sahara Pune Warriors owned by Sahara Group is another new team alongwith Kochi Tuskers Kerala, to play in this year’s IPL. Team will kick start its campaign on Sunday against Kings Xi Punjab at

Under Yuvraj’s captaincy Sahara Pune Warriors could definitely be a force to reckon with if they play up to their potential during the six week event. They have Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Mohnish Mishra in their ranks, Pune Warriors is one of the strongest squad participating in the IPL 4. Their bowling also seems to be well balanced as Ashish Nehra and Jerome Taylor will share the new ball. Injury to Sri Lankan Angelo Mathews could have affected team's strategy, but the availability of young all-rounder Mitchell Marsh will give balance to the side.They have also got specialist spinners in form of experienced Murali Kartik and Kiwi Nathan McCullum.As far as  foreigners in the batting department are concerned, aggressive New Zealander Jesse Ryder can be used up in the batting order, while South African former skipper Graeme Smith is sure to take the opening slot with young Pandey.But the biggest asset that the Pune side carries into the tournament is skipper Yuvraj Singh, who has had a phenomenal World Cup leading up to the IPL.The southpaw was the player of the tournament in the World Cup won by India and playing against his former club could be an experience in itself for the all-rounder.

Team Info:

Sahara Pune Warriors

Yuvraj Singh(Captain), Robin Uthappa(Wicket-Keeper), Ashish Nehra, Murali Kartik, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Bhuvenshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Ekalavya Dwivedi, Ganesh Gaikwad, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Harshad Khadiwale, Kamran Khan, Manish Pandey, Mithun Manhas, Mohnish MIshra, Rahul Sharma, Sachin Rana, Shrikant Wagh, Shrikant Mundhe, Imtiyaz Ahmed (Foreign) Graeme Smith, Tim Paine, Angelo Mathews, Nathan McCullum, Callum Ferguson, Wayne Parnell, Mitchell Marsh, Jerome Taylor, Alfonso Thomas, Jesse Ryder.Geoff Marsh(Coach)

Punjab, on the other hand, also have revamped their side. With former Deccan Chargers skipper Adam Gilchrist as their captain, Kings although short of star power which was very much present till last season.They very much depend on heroics of Gilchrist to provide them a quick start that can be carried forward by Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Dinesh Karthik and Paras Dogra. All-round abilities of Ryan McLaren and Hussey give their side the much-needed stability. Punjab's bowling can be a surprise factor as they have a good combination of swing and pace upfront. Praveen Kumar's ability to swing the ball while Australian quickie Ryan Harris can bowl with incredible pace is known to everybody. Another Australian Nathan Remmington will add variety to the Kings XI Punjab attack with his accurate medium pace.Piyush Chawla and Bipul Sharma could be the spinners team management can opt for, while Abhishek Nayar may also be useful with his gentle medium pacers.

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)

In all, an exciting contest is on the cards as both teams would like to start their campaigns with wins under their belts.

.

IPL Season 4–Format, Teams and Players

According to new format, there would be total 74 matches in the IPL 4 Fixtures. Out of 74 matches, 70 would be league matches. That is each team will play at least 14 committed matches in the league games as per current clause. Out of 14 matches played by each IPL team, 7 would be played at home venue and while remaining 7 at away venue.There will be two groups, each having 5 teams in it. Although groups have been created, it would not be shown separately in the League Table Points. Each team of one group will play other teams in the same group twice (one home and another away game = 8 Games). Each team of one group will play 4 teams of another group once at either home or away venue (4 Games). Each team of one Group will play two games with one of the predetermined team (random) of another group (one home and another away game = 2 Games).

This way each team will play total 14 games in league games. After all league games are finished of i.e. 70 league matches, Playoff games will begin. Total 3 playoff matches will be played name Game A, Game B and Game C. The last match would be off course Grand Final to be played between winner of Game A and Game C.

Game A – Between 1st and 2nd team spotting in the league points table. (de facto semi final for winner)
Game B – Between 3rd and 4th team spotting in the league points table. (de facto quarter final for winner)
Game C - Between Looser of Game A and Winner of Game B. (semi final)Final – Between Winner of Game A and Winner of Game C.
Looser of Game B and Game C are out of competition straight away.

What the hack, tell me who will be finalist ?

Winner of Game A, gets into Final directly.
If looser of Game A wins the Game C, he becomes finalist.
If winner of Game B wins the Game C, he becomes finalist.

So, League format is bit confusing but one of source of excitement for cricket viewers.

Winner of Game A, gets into Final directly.
If looser of Game A wins the Game C, he becomes finalist.
If winner of Game B wins the Game C, he becomes finalist.
Two new teams have been added by BCCI. One from Pune and another from Kochi. Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab which were suspended earlier, have been readmitted after stay granted by Bombay High Court. It is learn from sources that BCCI has put off the plan to go Supreme Court over this matter.

Kochi and Pune are the two new teams added this year. So total teams in IPL 4 is 10 with 2 new addition to the existing 8 teams.

Details of Teams and Players:

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)

---

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)

---

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

---

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)

---

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)

---

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)

---

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).

---

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)

---

Sahara Pune Warriors

Yuvraj Singh(Captain), Robin Uthappa(Wicket-Keeper), Ashish Nehra, Murali Kartik, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Bhuvenshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Ekalavya Dwivedi, Ganesh Gaikwad, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Harshad Khadiwale, Kamran Khan, Manish Pandey, Mithun Manhas, Mohnish MIshra, Rahul Sharma, Sachin Rana, Shrikant Wagh, Shrikant Mundhe, Imtiyaz Ahmed (Foreign) Graeme Smith, Tim Paine, Angelo Mathews, Nathan McCullum, Callum Ferguson, Wayne Parnell, Mitchell Marsh, Jerome Taylor, Alfonso Thomas, Jesse Ryder.Geoff Marsh(Coach)