Mighty Delhi take on fragile Rajasthan

Preview by Saurabh Somani

The Conditions
For the first time, the action moves away from Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town to Centurion. The conditions, therefore, are more of an unknown quantity than for the other venues. History suggests, that the wicket should be even paced, with an equal contest between bat and ball.

Indian fans would remember this as the venue where Sachin Tendulkar composed one of his classic one-day knocks - a fierce 98 off just 75 balls against a Pakistani attack comprising Akram, Younis and Akhtar in the 2003 World Cup.
It has a seating capacity of 22,000.

The Teams
Both teams have lived up to the pre-tournament billing. Delhi has gotten off to a flyer, with a 100% win record, while Rajasthan has struggled, with some key players missing.

Delhi Daredevils: Have won all 3 matches played so far, without a major contribution from Gautam Gambhir and with just one cameo from Sehwag. With AB de Villiers and Dilshan in cracking form, Delhi has been able to afford the poor scores from its opening batsmen. However, it is just a matter of time before they fire, and when they do, Delhi will be hard to stop. The continuing mystery of the tournament has been their reluctance to play Glenn McGrath. His replacement, Dirk Nannes, has picked up a solitary wicket in 3 matches at an economy rate of 7.27 - hardly the figures that would prompt inclusion ahead of McGrath.

Rajasthan Royals: The team is under fire, and it hasn't helped that Graeme Smith has been out of sorts so far. He is the one man capable of taking the game by the scruff of the neck, but his lack of form is hurting Rajasthan badly. With only Yusuf Pathan hitting some form, Rajasthan need to beef up their batting. Their bowling has looked good, but even Kamran Khan and Shane Warne cannot do much if the batsmen fail to put up a decent score.
Contests to Watch

Virender Sehwag vs Shane Warne - If Viru is there at the crease when Warne comes on to bowl, it should be a fascinating contest. Will he emulate his idol Sachin Tendulkar in dismantling Warne? Or will Warnie prove once again, that old is gold?
Kamran Khan vs the Delhi top order - The young man playing the part of Cinderella in his fairytale will face a sterner test than any he has so far, when he takes on the mighty Delhi top order. If he proves equal to the task, then it might just herald the arrival of India's search for a third seamer.

Numbers Game:
131 - the difference in the number of runs scored so far by the Dilshan and AB de Villiers and Sehwag and Gambhir, after the first 3 matches in the IPL. AB and Dilshan have scored 243 runs between them, while Viru and Gauti have just 82 so far.
3 - the number of bowlers (minimum 10 overs) who have an economy rate of less than 5.0 in this year's tournament. Kamran Khan is joint second on the list with 4.90.
Trivia:
Kamran Khan has not played in any first class match before being picked for the Rajasthan Royals. In fact, most of the matches he played were with a tennis ball.

No stopping Deccan Chargers in IPL

Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs clobbered the Chennai Super Kings attack to hand Deccan Chargers their fourth successive win in the Indian Premier League on Monday.

The Australian-South African duo hammered 67 off 34 balls in a spectacular opening stand as the Chargers surpassed Chennai's competitive 165-6 with six wickets and three balls to spare in the Twenty20 clash at the Kingsmead here.

The 37-year-old Gilchrist, leading the Deccan Chargers after retiring from international cricket last year, blazed 44 off 19 balls with five boundaries and three sixes.

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Fake IPL Player Blog: Hats Off to Bhookha Naan

It's very early in the morning here. Couldn't sleep well the whole night. We are missing a few members of our family who have gone back home. It's always painful to see some of your own being culled and I am not in any mood for humour.

But, I am in a very respectful mood. I have new found respect for Bhookha Naan and his coterie of ill advisors. I mean, their insight into the game is par excellence. They can see things that us mortals just can't. To begin with they select Shakespeare and Ganji Hanger for a T20 tournament. That itself was genius. And then they sack them after just one inning each. Being the ignorant fool that I am, I thought they played just as all of us had always expected them too.
But, I think Bhookha must have seen something that we couldn't and suddenly realised that they do not fit in. I wish I could fall at their feet and pray for enlightenment. Tell me, Oh my Master, what did you see in those 2 innings that you hadn't known all along? What startling revelation was caught by only your eyes and nobody else's? Tell me, please tell me, your enlightened soul, how do I see things beyond what is obvious?

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Match Preview : Deccan Chargers vs Chennai Super Kings

Preview by Saurabh Somani
The Conditions:
With the weather holding good for the past two days, the fans at Durban can hope to get in yet another game unaffected by the rains. As the past matches have shown, the pitch has runs in it for batsmen who take their chances well, i.e. if you're going to clear your front leg and swing across the line, expect your stumps to take a walk, but if you're going to watch the length and hit cleanly and straight, watch the ball sail over the boundary.

The Teams:
Even though one team has a 100% win record, and the other has a 25% win record in the tournament, both would approach this game in a positive frame of mind, aware that if they play to potential, they both have a chance of winning this match.

Deccan Chargers: Currently sitting pretty at the top of the table, the first season blues seem to have been completely forgotten. The batting top order has clicked and how! Gilchrist is batting as if he's in an extended World Cup Final '07 mode, Gibbs has rediscovered his magic touch and Rohit Sharma is again looking like the young man everyone was sure would be India's future No.4 in all forms of the game. Their West Indian imports have also done well with Dwayne Smith and Fidel Edwards making vital contributions. They would hope that RP Singh's bowling continues its upswing, and the superb Pragyan Ojha continues to mesmerize batsmen. And though both of them haven't yet encountered the entity known as Matthew Hayden, the Chargers would be confident of their wards performing.

Chennai Super Kings: Chennai have been dealt rather harsh cards through the tournament and despite having one of the strongest teams on paper, have only 1 win from 4 matches, with one being washed out, and the other two being close losses. They've lost Flintoff, but on current form that won't be too big a blow, with both Oram and Ntini available as replacements. They would hope for a change in fortunes, since with a little luck they might easily have been sitting at 4 wins out of 4 matches right now. The bowling needs to fire more consistently, and picking Ntini over Oram might be a good move.
Contests to Watch:

RP Singh, Fidel Edwards, Pragyan Ojha against Matthew Hayden, MS Dhoni and Albie Morkel - One of each troika is bound to bowl an extended spell against the other, and the result would be fascinating. Am waiting to see if Hayden can hit RP out of the attack, if Albie can negate Ojha's dip and turn by hitting him out of the park, if Dhoni can blunt Edwards' pace with those intelligent hoicks and placements...
Gony and Balaji versus Gibbs and Gilchrist - for the two India hopeful seamers, this would prove just how good or bad they are when bowling to proven international class batsmen. If they can acquit themselves well against Gibbs and Gilchrist, they would have done their cases a world of good, come selection time.

Numbers Game:
18 - Number of innings VVS Laxman went without a century after his epic 281 at the Eden Gardens.
42 - The highest score Dwayne Smith has managed after hitting 105 not out in his second test innings.

Trivia:
So far, the Chennai Super Kings have a winning percentage of only 50% across all the matches in the IPL ('08 and '09). They have played 20, won 10, lost 9 and 1 has been washed out.

Teams:

Chennai Super Kings (From): Matthew Hayden, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w/c), Subramaniam Badrinath, Albie Morkel, Jacob Oram, Joginder Sharma, Laxmipathy Balaji, Manpreet Gony, Muttiah Muralitharan, Arun Karthik, George Bailey, Makhaya Ntini, Mike Hussey, Murali Vijay, Palani Amarnath, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shadab Jakati, Sudeep Tyagi, Thilan Thushara, Viraj Kadbe

Deccan Chargers (From): Adam Gilchrist(w/c), Herschelle Gibbs, Dwayne Smith, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Venugopal Rao, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Rudra Pratap Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Fidel Edwards, Harmeet Singh, Scott Styris, Abhinav Kumar, Arjun Yadav, Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna, Halhadar Das, Jaskaran Singh, Manvinder Bisla, Nuwan Zoysa, Paidikalva Vijaykumar, Ryan Harris, Sarvesh Kumar, Shoaib Ahmed, Tirumalsetti Suman