Ground reality and pitch:
Formerly known as the Kimberly Country Club, the De Beers Oval is home to the Grinqualand West cricket team. With a seating capacity 11,000, the De Beers Oval was specially designed for the ODI format. The wicket at the De Beers is an ideally designed ODI pitch inclined to favour the batsmen.
Temperatures: Min - 45F Max - 70F | Humidity: 91% | Conditions: Sunny
Team Updates:
Chennai: Chennai have had a good outing recently, with four consecutive wins. The batting has been firing all along with the retired Australian Matthew Hayden leading the charge and Suresh Raina and Dhoni in good form. In bowling department, Laxmipathi Balaji has been in fine touch with 11 wickets from seven matches while veteran Muttiah Muralitharan and little known Shadab Jakati have been doing wonders for Chennai in the spin department. One area of concern for Chennai has been the fielding. Dhoni was understandably angry with the shoddy fielding of his side during the last match. He would expect his team-mates to pull up their socks as Chennai aim at notching up their fifth win.
Rajasthan: Rajasthan had a huge blow when Shane Watson was ruled out of the IPL after suffering a groin injury. With their two bowlers Kamran Khan and Amit Singh reported for suspect action, Rajsthan would count on the likes of Munaf Patel and their captain Shane Warne to come up with good spells while bowling against the formidable batting line-up of Chennai. Rajasthan's batting has looked good with their stroke-makers Graeme Smith, Naman Ojha, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja being amongst runs. Shane Warne would look for a good performance from his side as they are looking to avenge their defeat in the last match against Chennai.
Contests to watch:
Dhoni vs. Warne: The explosive Indian captain has looked in good touch during the recent games. Kimberly would be witness to a mouthwatering clash when MS Dhoni and the Australian Spin Wizard Shane Warne face-off.
Pathan vs. Muralitharan: Yusuf has been a revelation in the shortest form of cricket. However, his ability to power the ball out of the stadium would be put to test when he faces the Sri Lankan Maestro Muralitharan.
Trivia:
Besides having the same points (11), Chennai and Rajasthan have the same number of wins (five), losses (three) and no results (one) after playing 9 games each, so far in the 2009 edition of the IPL.
Which cricketer has the best bowling figures in a innings on ODI debut? Answer and win KF Air tickets
Teams:
Chennai Super Kings (From): Matthew Hayden, Subramaniam Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w/c), Albie Morkel, George Bailey, Shadab Jakati, Sudeep Tyagi, Laxmipathy Balaji, Manpreet Gony, Muttiah Muralitharan, Joginder Sharma, Arun Karthik, Parthiv Patel, Jacob Oram, Makhaya Ntini, Mike Hussey, Murali Vijay, Palani Amarnath, Ravichandran Ashwin, Thilan Thushara, Viraj Kadbe
Rajasthan Royals (From): Graeme Smith, Naman Ojha(w), Lee Carseldine, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Niraj Patel, Abhishek Raut, Shane Warne(c), Morne Morkel, Amit Singh, Munaf Patel, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Tyron Henderson, Mahesh Rawat, Kamran Khan, Aditya Angle, Swapnil Asnodkar, Atul Sharma, Gajendra Singh, Mohammad Arif, Parag More, Paul Valthaty, Raiphi Gomez, Rob Quiney, Shane Watson, Shane Harwood, Shaun Tait, Siddharth Trivedi, Siddharth Chitnis, Sumit Khatri
