Words on Cricket: Rajasthan Royals

Showing posts with label Rajasthan Royals. Show all posts

Friday, April 22, 2011

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

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

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

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)

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:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

Friday, April 15, 2011

Jubilant RR will face KKR. Kochi will take on Sachin’s team.

Jubilant RR will face KKR

Two matches and two that’s the tale of Rajasthan Royals. The team which did not had enough funds during auction to buy good players is giving good teams run for their money under the magical leadership of legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne who is their coach also. Today they will face new look Kolkata Knight Riders at Jaipur.

So far Rajasthan Royals beat Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils which did not look like formidable side so far. Game against KKR will give clear idea about Rajasthan Royals because KKR is far more formidable team compared to Deccan and Daredevils. So big test ahead for Warnie and his team. If Shane Watson will be included in Rajasthan Royals then it will become far more formidable. So far Rahul Dravid, Johan Botha has done good job with the bat and Shane Warne is leading from the front, so things looks bright for RR but KKR is too good team.

KKR is the team which lost its first match against defending champions CSK but came back well to win its next match against Deccan Chargers. This year KKR got the face-lift as owner of KKR bought new players in auction. Gambhir, captain of KKR is the costliest player in IPL 4 as he fetched $2.4 million in auction. He is in good form right now and will look to win this game for KKR. Yusuf Pathan is the another key player in this line-up. He was with Rajasthan Royals for last 3 seasons so his inputs will definitely help KKR. Brett Lee and Shakib Al Hasan has joined this team and this makes KKR more formidable. So far their bowling lacked some teeth but with inclusion of Lee, bowling becomes far more potent. Manoj Tiwary is in good touch in middle-order. Jacques Kallis is providing them best of the starts, so KKR is favorites to win this contest.

Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

Team Info:

Kolkata Knightriders

Kochi will take on Sachin’s team.

Losing 2 out of 2 is the story of Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Big test ahead for them as they take on Sachin led Mumbai Indians today at Mumbai. Kochi batting looked good in both the matches but their bowling has been very poor. Both RP Singh and Sreesanth are going over 10 runs an over in opening spell and also failed to pick up early wickets. Kochi is one of the tow new teams included in this edition of IPL and so far their performance is disastrous. They have very good captain in Mahela Jayawardene but he failure with the bat causing lot more trouble to Kochi team. They have good all-rounder in Ravindra Jadeja but his batting abilities have been not utilised properly so far. Kochi have to find ways to win the game against Mumbai and winning against Mumbai Indians will going to be uphill task because Mumbai Indian is far more superior than Kochi. But Kochi have to win this game at any cost just to gain momentum.

On the other hand Sachin led Mumbai is doing very well. They won both their matches so far. They defeated formidable team like RCB and their confidence is sky high at the moment. Malinga is providing them early wickets and Sachin is leading from the front in batting. Youngsters like Ambati Rayadu and R.Satish are doing well in the company of Sachin. Mumbai Indians has continued their good run and gaining great momentum with every match. They have likes of Kieron Pollard, Jacobs and Harbhajan Singh in their ranks who can turn the match anytime. So Mumbai starts as favorite in this game.

Team Info:

Mumbai Indians

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)

Deccan broke the home jinx as they beat RCB

RCB started as favorites in this match. They won the toss and elected to field first which tilted the match slightly more in their favour as pitch was having greenish look. But hats-off to Deccan batsmen who batted brilliantly on pitch which had something in it for the bowlers and put up more than competitive score on the board. It was one of the day when Deccan never put the foot wrong in entire match. Batting came good, bowling and fielding complimented the batting well and finally Deccan managed the win at home after all the previous losses.

Deccan replaced Ishank Jaggi with Sunny Sohal, the ex-Kings XI player. Dhawan and Sohal opened the innings for Deccan in this match but Dhawan fell cheaply in trying to up the scoring. It looked like, once again Deccan will falter but Sangakkara and Sohal knitted good partnership between them which provided the platform to their middle-order to put up huge score. After dong brilliant partnership Sanga fell but in came ex-RCB boy Bharat Chipli who played brilliant knock and scored brilliant half-century against its ex-team and took the score past 170. RCB bowling failed to make an impression in this match though pitch was favouring the bowlers. Their was clear lateral movement available off the pitch yet Deccan bowlers failed to use it.

Chasing marginal big total RCB lost its momentum very early as they lost Mayank Agarwal, Dilshan, Ab DeVilliers and Sourabh Tiwary in quick succession. Vettori sent Zaheer Khan as a pinch hitter but that move also back-fired as Zaheer faced 3 balls and scored none and Steyn bowled him. RCB was in all sorts of trouble but Virat Kohli and Pujara did wonderful partnership and kept the RCB hopes alive. Especially Kohli played brilliant innings but when run-rate goes past 15 then it becomes difficult for any batsmen to keep up with the run-rate and if he tries to do so then often he lose his wicket and that’s what happened with Pujara and Kohli. Both tried to up the scoring but lost their wickets in the process. It was heartening to see that Ishant Sharma was consistently hit the high 140 km speed mark in this match and he looked in good rhythm while he was bowling. Few of his deliveries clocked over 150 km speed as well. This spell of his certainly give him lot of confidence as he bowled with speed and maintained good line and length throughout the spell.

Before this match Deccan lost all its home matches but they managed first win on home soil and hopefully this will give some momentum to Deccan campaign. Bharat Chipli batted brilliantly for Deccan. RCB has lost some momentum after win in first match as they lost two consecutive matches and need to re-think over their strategy. RCB have the best batting line-up among all the teams in IPL.

Man of the Match

Dale Steyn

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Knight Riders discharged Deccan. Preview: RR vs DD and RCB vs MI

Finally, Gambhir came up the order and Kolkata Knight Riders opened their account of victory in IPL 4. Chasing KKRs par total on a pitch which had something in it for spinners, Deccan lost 3 quick wickets at the start of the innings. Shikhar Dhawan, Ishank Jaggi and skipper Kumar Sangakkara got out early leaving Deccan in all sorts of trouble. Chipli and Dan Christian gave some fight back after top-order collapse but in the end Deccan found 9 runs short of the target and lost the match. Second consecutive defeat for Sanga and his boys. Most importantly Sangakkara who were in tremendous form at World Cup looked completely out of sorts in IPL 4.

KKR started their innings brilliantly as Bisla and Kallis given them solid and steady start at the top and Kingiht RIder batsmen capitalise on that start and put up good total for the Deccan to chase. Monoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan played superb cameos for KKR which helped them in reaching good score. Gambhir once again failed with the bat but he came up the order this time and that was heartening for Shahrukh Khan and KKR. Deccan bowling looked ordinary except Amit Mishra who bowled superb spell for Deccan. Steyn was good in 1st spell but lost his way in 2nd spell. Ishant Sharma was disappointing from the Deccan’s perspective.

So KKR moved on and Deccan have to wait for sometime for the win. KKR started as favourite in this game and they lived upto the expectations of the fans at Edens. Crowd response was mild from Kolkata as most of the fans refrain themselves from KKR match because ‘DADA’ was missing from KKR line-up.

Man of the Match

Two games coming up today and both are going to be terrific games.

Warnie’s Royals face Sehwag’s Daredevils.

In the first game today, Rajasthan Royals will take on Delhi Daredevils at Jaipur. Rajasthan Royals looks confident side after win in their opening game. On the other hand Daredevils will be keen to open their victory account in IPL 4. On paper RR and DD don’t have much difference. But confidence factor and shrewd tactics of captain Warnie gives the edge to RR. Moreover, they are playing at home and will have definite advantage of home crowd support and conditions. The likes of Ross Taylor, Rahul Dravid and Botha who was star in RR victory against Deccan will play important role in today’s game as well. RR bowling also looks good even though it don’t have any big name except Shane Warne.

Daredevils batting is lacklustre and there is no doubt about it. The way they struggled against Mumbai Indians, seriously put question-mark on DDs batting. Except Sehwag and Warner they don’t have anybody on whom team can rely. If Warner and Sehwag will get out early then DD will surely fail in this match as well. Aaron Finch is good batsmen but it will be difficult for him to play on slow and low pitches of India. Daredevils have relative good bowling line-up as they have Morne Morkel and Irfan Pathan in their ranks.

Rajasthan Royals will certainly have upper hand in this match and Shewag have to pull out the win at any cost just to get the momentum.

Team Info:

Delhi Daredevils

Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

MI will face RCB Challenge

Confident Mumbai Indians will take on jubilant Royal Challenger Bangalore at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Both the teams coming in this match with a win under their belt. Both teams also look par as far as resources are concerned but MI have little edge in their bowling with Malinga firing from the top. The runners-up of the third edition of the IPL retaining most of its previous players in the squad, the team management is keen to rotate the players in the initial games to asses their depth in both the departments - batting and bowling.

Sachin’s from is another good aspect of Mumbai Indians. Andrew SYmonds missed out in last match against DDs on the account of injury, so it will be interesting to see that MI will feature him in this match or not.On the other hand RCB will bank on in-form batsmen AB DeVilliers and Virat Kohli. Both are in good touch. Zaheer Khan provides great strength to RCB bowling and he will spearhead the RCB bowling attack against his ex-team.