IPl 2009: Points Table

Team	M	W	L	N/R	PTS	NET RR
Deccan Chargers	2	2	0	0	4	+2.158
Delhi Daredevils	2	2	0	0	4	+0.985
Mumbai Indians	2	1	-	1	3	+0.950
Rajasthan Royals	3	1	1	1	3	-1.875
Chennai Super Kings	3	1	2	0	2	+1.067
King’s XI Punjab	3	1	2	0	2	0.364
Royal Challengers	4	1	3	0	2	-0.669
Kolkata Knight Riders	3	1	1	1	2	-0.887

Match Preview: Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals: Game 2

Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals
Time: IST 8 pm
Location; Kingsmead, Durban.


Last Year's Ranking:5
Captain: Sachin Tendulkar
Coach: Pravin Amre
IPL 2008 Record: M-14, W-7, L-7.
IPL 2009 Record M-1, W-1, L-0


Team Form:
Mumbai won a tough first game against the runner-ups of last season’s IPL and will go into the second battle against the champions with a lot of confidence. With skipper Sachin Tendulkar hitting an undefeated 59 and in sublime form, Mumbai look like the team that will be smiling at the finishing line. Malinga and Harbhajan look good with the ball, and should pose a test for Rajasthan.


Team News:
Pinal Shah likely to be replaced by keeper Yogesh Takawale. Rohan Raje will give way to Dhawal Kulkarni.


----------------Rajasthan Royals-----------------

Last Year's Ranking: 1
Captain: Shane Warne
Coach: Shane Warne
IPL 2008 Record: M-16, W-9, L-7.
IPL 2009 Record: M-1, W-0, L-1.

Team Form:
Warne rolled back the years, with flight, dip, big break, and also the fiery flipper. Ask Virat Kohli and B Akhil. Dimitri Mascarenhas proved to be the surprise element with the ball. With the odd quick delivery out of nowhere, Kamran Khan showed a glimpse or two of what Warne might have seen. It's the batsmen who are the worry - the Asnodkars and the Pathans, who played like kings on flat Indian pitches last year. Graeme Smith will have to run into some pretty good form pretty soon. It should help that Mitchell Johnson is in Dubai. Just get past old nemesis Zaheer Khan and he should be fine.

Team News:
Don't expect wholesale changes with Rajasthan, but don't count out an odd rabbit out of Warne's hat either. Warne, Mascarenhas, Smith and Henderson should continue to be the four foreign players. Niraj Patel is the man most likely to be under pressure.

Head to Head:
Mumbai gave Rajasthan one of their rare hidings last year when they first met, bowling the eventual champions out for 103. Rajasthan set things right in the return game, though, with a thrilling last-ball win. Before Niraj and Jadeja bailed Rajasthan out, they were 77 for 5, chasing 146. Maybe reason enough to give Niraj another game.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS		MUMBAI INDIANS
2	Played	2
1	Won	1
1	Lost	1
0	Tied	0
0	No Results	0
1	Home Wins	1
0	Away Wins	0
Mumbai Indians won by 7 wickets on May 06 2008	Biggest Loss	Rajasthan Royals won by 5 wickets on May 25 2008
Rajasthan Royals won by 5 wickets on May 25 2008 Target Chased: 145	Highest Total chased	Mumbai Indians won by 7 wickets on May 06 2008 Target Chased: 103
Swapnil Asnodkar (56 Runs)	Most Prolific Batsman	Sanath Jayasuriya (56 Runs)
Niraj Patel (40 Runs)	Highest Individual Score	Sanath Jayasuriya (38 Runs)
4/14 by Sohail Tanvir on May 25 2008	Best Bowling Analysis	3/13 by Ashish Nehra on May 06 2008
Sohail Tanvir (4 Wickets)	Most Prolific Bowler	Ashish Nehra (3 Wickets)

About the Ground: Sahara Stadium Kingsmead, Durban

Kingsmead is located in humid Durban, home to sandy beaches and surfing.
Established ~1939
Seating capacity 25,000


Pitch Report:
It has been renowned as a seamers wicket, and there is also a famous myth regarding how the tide affects batting conditions, as the ground is quite close to the beach. Many batting collapses in matches in the past have been blamed on changes in the tide, but nobody has been able to prove this theory.

Interesting History:
Yuvraj Singh scored 36 runs from Stuart Broads over becoming the first cricketer to do so in Twenty20 Cricket. India were unbeaten on this ground during the ICC Twenty20 World Championship.

Weather Conditions
Min: 15°C Max: 21°C
Weather: Cloudy with rain
Wind: Gentle South Westerly

Looking Back:
The defending champions have made a disastrous start. But that's what they did last year too, and that was the only straw Shane Warne clutched after Rajasthan Royals' humbling defeat to Bangalore Royal Challengers on Saturday.

Mumbai, last year's middle-rankers, had a dream start - and Sanath Jayasuriya didn't even fire for them - and head into this game as hands-down favourites. They have a dream opening combination in Sachin Tendulkar and Jayasuriya, the form man in JP Duminy and what worked as a perfect fire-and-ice bowling combination in Lasith Malinga and Harbhajan Singh. Not to mention Zaheer Khan and Dwayne Bravo.

Going by big names, Rajasthan should be out of their depth. Right? Wrong. That was the case last year too, and teams will do better than to write off Warne's team just on the basis of one poor performance. Even last year, Rajasthan lulled other teams with a poor performance first up. They had to wait for a long time for another average game.

Both teams will look to improve their batting - their bowlers were mostly spot on and in any case they will be playing on one of the bouncier pitches at Kingsmead. Given the young Rajasthan line-up, Mumbai - with the presence of Jayasuriya, Duminy and Bravo - will always threaten a big lusty innings.

Watch out for

Warne v Tendulkar: Perhaps the biggest gift from this new format. It happened only once last season because Tendulkar was not fit for their first match. Even though they went at it for just six balls, they did put up a show. Tendulkar tried his trademark paddle first up, tried coming down the track and was pushed by a flatter delivery, and six balls yielded six runs, with no clear winners. Here's hoping for a longer duel this time. Just don't get out, Sach, before Warnie comes on to bowl.



Pollock v Smith: The incumbent v the successor. Too bad Shaun Pollock will only be plotting from outside, and not bowling himself. Maybe they should get him to bowl just for one match.

Probable Team Line-up:
Mumbai Indians:
Sanath Jayasuriya
Sachin Tendulkar
Shikar Dhawan
JP Duminy
Dwayne Bravo
Abhishek Nayar
Yogesh Takawale
Dhawal Kulkarni
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Lasith Malinga


Rajasthan Royals:
Graeme Smith
Swapnil Asnodkar
Niraj Patel
Tyron Henderson
Yusuf Pathan
Dimitri Mascarenhas
Ravindra Jadeja
Shane Warne (capt.)
Mahesh Rawat (wk)
Munaf Patel
Kamran Khan.

Post Match Analysis: Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings

Pop the champagne boys, we’re off to a perfect start- one game, one win, a stylish Sachin Tendulkar fifty and an impeccable performance by the Indians against last year’s finalists. The Chennai squad were comprehensively outplayed by a fiery Mumbai Indians side.

Match Summary:

Toss: Chennai won the toss and elected to field.
Umpires: Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and K. Hariharan (India)
3rd Umpire: Russel Tiffin (Zimbabwe)

Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings by 19 Runs.

SCOREBOARD:

Mumbai Indians (There's a problem with the html code and so you'll have to scroll down quite a bit to see the scoreboard. Sorry for the inconvenience.)

Batsman	Wicket	Runs	Balls	4s	6s	S/R
Sanath Jayasuriya	c Hayden b Thushara	26	20	5	0	130.00
Sachin Tendulkar	Not Out	59	49	7	0	120.41
Shikhar Dhawan	Dhawan c MS Dhoni b Manpreet Gony	22	21	2	0	104.76
JP Duminy	c & b Manpreet Gony	9	7	1	0	128.57
Dwayne Bravo	c Matthew Hayden b Joginder Sharma	5	4	1	0	125.00
Abhishek Nayar	Nayar c Thilan Thushara b Jacob Oram	35	14	2	3	250.00
Harbhajan Singh	run out (Jacob Oram)	4	2	1	0	250.00
Zaheer Khan	c Ravichandran Ashwin b Andrew Flintoff	2	3	0	0	66.67
Pinal Shah	Not Out	0	0	0	0	0.00
Rohan Raje	-
Lasith Malinga	-

Extras (b 1, lb 1, w 1) 3
Total Score:166/7(20 Over)RR:8.3


Bowling:

Bowling	O	M	R	W	NB	WD	Eco
Manpreet Gony	4	0	32	2	0	1	8
Thilan Thushara	4	0	32	1	0	0	8
Andrew Flintoff	4	0	44	1	0	0	11
Jacob Oram	4	0	31	1	0	0	7.75
Joginder Sharma	4	0	25	1	0	0	6.25

Fall of wickets: 1-39 (Jayasuriya, 5.5 overs), 2-82 (Dhawan, 11.4), 3-95 (Duminy, 13.3), 4-102 (Bravo, 14.3), 5-148 (Nayar, 18.1), 6-157 (Harbhajan, 18.6), 7-161 (Khan, 19.5)

Highlights- Mumbai Indian Innings.

________________________________________


Chennai Super Kings:

Batsman	Wicket	Runs	Balls	4s	6s	S/R
Parthiv Patel	c Tendulkar b Malinga	0	2	0	0	0.00
Matthew Hayden	c Khan b Jayasuriya	44	35	6	1	125.71
Suresh Raina	c Raje b Bravo	8	9	1	0	88.89
Andrew Flintoff	c & b Harbhajan	24	23	3	1	104.35
Mahendra Singh Dhoni	b Malinga	36	26	1	2	138.46
Jacob Oram	c Shah b Jayasuriya	8	6	0	1	133.33
S. Badrinath	c Bravo b Malinga	0	2	0	0	0.00
Joginder Sharma	not out	16	15	0	1	106.67
Thilan Thushara	not out	1	2	0	0	50.00
Manpreet Gony	-
Ravichandran Ashwin	-

Extras (lb 6, w 3) 9

Total Score: 146/7 (20 Overs) RR: 7.3


Bowling: (There's a problem with the html code and so you'll have to scroll down quite a bit to see the scoreboard. Sorry for the inconvenience.)

Bowling	O	M	R	W	NB	WD	Eco
Lasith Malinga	4	0	15	3	0	2	3.75
Zaheer Khan	4	0	34	0	0	0	8.5
Dwayne Bravo	4	0	27	1	0	1	6.75
Rohan Raje	1	0	15	0	0	0	15
Harbhajan Singh	3	0	15	1	0	0	5
Sanath Jayasuriya	4	0	34	2	0	0	8.5

Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Patel, 0.2 overs), 2-18 (Raina, 2.5), 3-70 (Flintoff, 9.5), 4-89 (Hayden, 12.4), 5-101 (Oram, 14.3), 6-109 (Badrinath, 15.3), 7-144 (Dhoni, 19.4)

Highlights- Chennai Super Kings Innings.

________________________________________

The Game:

We were slightly worried at the outset when Chennai won the toss and elected to take the field. Looking at the cloudy sky above an already pace friendly wicket at Cape Town, meant the ball was going to be buzzing around leaving Sachin and Surya to counter unpredictable bounce and heavy seam movement.

Both players looked far from comfortable and before long Tendulkar edged one of Flintoff that looped slowly to Mathew Hayden at first slip. The Australian stalwart who retired from the International circuit recently grabbed at it and the shockingly the ball went down- everyone stood in disbelief, Hayden didn't know that he had just dropped the match.

But the breakthrough didn't take long to come thereafter.

In the very next over, Sanath Jayasuriya was dismissed for a 20 ball 26 by his Sri Lankan counterpart Thilan Thushara when he hit the ball hard to mid-wicket- this time around Hayden made no mistake.

Shikhar Dhawan walked in having realized that it was tough to get the ball away and adapted from the expansive strokes that are typical of cricket's shortest format to nudging the ball around the infield for singles. The 43-run stand came to an end when paceman Manpreet Gony got twin breakthroughs with Dhawan out caught behind and then hometown boy- Duminy fell in an unbelievable reflex catch of his own bowling. Bravo too did not last long.

The Indians were in a tight spot at 102-4 by the 15th over but adversity has always been exactly what brings Tendulkar to his sublime best. He'd steered the national squad to victory single handedly for years in the 90's but it had been a while since he had got a similar oppotunity. His form has been on the rise and he capitalized on that playing the sheet anchor role to perfection, alongside Nayar who took a liking to the bowling of Flintoff and walloped him for three sixes in the 18th over, scoring a brisk 35 of just 14 balls.

Together with his captain Tendulkar, Abhishek lifted the Mumbai Indians to a competitive total of 166. When the Super Kings came to bat, they found Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga in superb form for the Mumbai Indians as his four overs cost just 15 runs, strangling the life out of MS Dhoni's team.

It was a remarkable recovery for Malinga, who only recently returned to cricket this February after almost a year out of the game with a knee injury. His knee was cured by a Dr Eliyantha White, a homeopathic doctor of sorts who, said Malinga at the time, “works with supernatural powers and herbs".

Not even a late change of his bat with three balls remaining could help Dhoni snatch an unlikely win for the Chennai Super Kings as he was bowled for 36 by Malinga in the final over. The Super Kings lost Parthiv Patel in the second ball of their innings for a duck as he edged Malinga to Tendulkar at slip. After Suresh Raina had gone cheaply for 8, Matthew Hayden and Andrew Flintoff steadied the Chennai Super Kings and put them on track to reach the Mumbai Indians score. But when Hayden and Flintoff fell in the 10th and 13th overs for 44 and 24 respectively, the Chennai Super Kings were always behind the asking rate and fell 19 runs short in the end.

Last Year's Ranking:2
Captain: Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Coach: Stephen Fleming
IPL 2008 Record: M-16, W-9, L-7.

Team Form:
A cool head and the success to back up his skill, Dhoni is the captain any team would want. With Flintoff and Hayden at his availability, Chennai is definately one of the favourites to win this year's IPL,


Team News:
Mike Hussey will not play till the semi-finals, citing physical exhaustion.
South African Albie Morkel may not start as he played last night's match against Australia. If he does not play we believe Thilan Thushara will come in.

Looking Back:
The Chennai outfit began the last edition with four straight wins, with much of that initial success due to solid batting performances from Hayden and Hussey.

The Australians were available for only the first four matches - and once they returned home for national duty, the team's performance fell drastically.

However, Dhoni's Midas touch as captain never deserted him. Lusty batting from Suresh Raina and Parthiv Patel helped the Super Kings romp into the final, where they proved second-best against the Rajasthan Royals.
The Chennai team's preference for all-rounders saw them snare Andrew Flintoff at the auction in Goa.

The Super Kings will be without the services of Hussey, and New Zealand's Jacob Oram has declared himself a doubtful starter.

Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan will also play a key role while contributing towards the team. But with the now-retired Hayden available for the entire season and South African Albie Morkel in prime form, the team cannot be written off.

Player To Watch: Andrew Flintoff

Probable Team Line-Up:
Matthew Hayden
Parthiv Patel
Murli Vijay
S Badrinath
Suresh Raina
Andrew Flintoff
MS Dhoni
Albie Morkel
Manpreet Goni
L Balaji
M Murlitharan

Last Year's Ranking:5
Captain: Sachin Tendulkar
Coach: Pravin Amre
IPL 2008 Record: M-14, W-7, L-7.


Team Form:
Zaheer's form has been a suitable conclusion to the argument that he is currently the best pace-bowler in the world. JP Duminy, the South African batting sensation, will also add fire power to an already star studded Indian batting line up.this

Team News:
JP Duminy may not start because of a late night match against Australia for his national side. If so, we're hoping he gets replaced by Graham Napier.


Looking Back:
Tendulkar's tournament was blighted by injury last time around, which left Jayasuriya - the oldest player in the side - playing a lone hand.

Mumbai started last year’s campaign on a poor note with 4 defeats on the trot. Under Shaun Pollock, the team enacted a revival of sorts, winning 6 games in a row then on; a feat not achieved by any other team in the IPL. Unfortunately it was not enough to make it to the semi-finals.

Last year Mumbai were also not sharp in their squad selection in the auction. But this time they signed up SA sensation Jean-Paul Duminy at the Goa auction.

Mumbai were also the only active team in the Transfer Window. They swapped Robin Uthappa with Zaheer Khan from RCB who is a handy acquisition - given the left-arm seamer's roaring form. They also swapped Ashish Nehra with Shikhar Dhawan from Delhi.

The Reliance Industries-backed team has also roped in Kiwi bowler Kyle Mills and Bangladesh Captain Mohd Ashraful.

England hopeful Graham Napier will get the chance to showcase his abilities ahead of the World Twenty20 as the Essex man joins the Indians.

Pollock takes over as coach-cum-mentor this season, while Jonty Rhodes assists with the fielding technicalities.

The Mumbai Indians are also best prepared for South African conditions, with as many as 10 of the players training there for almost a month before the start of the tournament


Player To Watch : Sanath “Suriya” Jayasuriya


Probable Team Line-up:

Sanath Jayasuriya
Sachin Tendulkar
Shikar Dhawan
JP Duminy
Dwayne Bravo
Abhishek Nayar
Yogesh Takawale
Dhawal Kulkarni
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Lasith Malinga

Sachin's Mumbai take on Dhoni's Chennai

18 Apr 2009, 0147 hrs IST, Dwaipayan Datta, TNN

CAPE TOWN: They are easily the biggest icons of Indian cricket. If one has been the inspirational leader, the other has been the supreme
performer, and the two have taken Team India from strength to strength over the past couple of years.

And Mahendra Singh Dhoni would be the first to acknowledge that his success as Team India captain has had a lot to do with Tendulkar's performances.

Now Dhoni, leading Team Chennai, has to face the wrath of the Little Master, when they take on Mumbai Indians in the opener of IPL 2 in the far-off shores of the Atlantic -- the picturesque Newlands in Cape Town.

What makes it all the more interesting is the fact that Tendulkar has already announced that he won't play international T20 cricket while Dhoni had proved himself as a skipper for the first time in South Africa two years back, leading India to the World T20 triumph.

T20 is easily Dhoni's bastion and if Tendulkar can inspire his team to a win against Team Chennai, the Little Master can afford a quiet smile of satisfaction.

And Tendulkar has got all the ammunition in the world to turn the heat on last year's runners-up. A supreme opening partner in Sanath Jayasuriya, a solid middle-order led by the stylish South African batsman JP Duminy, and a decent pace-attack led by the in-form Zaheer Khan. All that has created a buzz around the Mumbai Indians.

It's likely that allrounder Dwayne Bravo and medium-pacer Kyle Mills will fill up the other two foreigner's slot in the Mumbai outfit.

But if Mumbai are blessed with balance, so are Team Chennai. Matthew Hayden's retirement from international cricket has come as a big boon for Dhoni's men and the burly Aussie has to play a huge role at the top of the order if Chennai are to do well in South African conditions.

Hayden knows all about playing on these tracks and it's pretty obvious that the Chennai top-order will look to play around him.

Another trump-card for Dhoni is Andrew Flintoff, provided he is 100 per cent fit. The England allrounder is available only for a couple of weeks and Chennai will expect to get the best out of him in this period.

Flintoff, of course, will be backed by another superb all-rounder in Albie Morkel, who is in great touch at the moment.

The duo will lead the Chennai bowling attack as well, but it'll be interesting to see how well they're backed up by the likes of Lakshmipathy Balaji and MS Gony.

Dhoni also has the guile of Muttiah Muralitharan to fall back upon, but it's to be seen whether he is able to work his magic in the shortest format of the game in South African conditions.