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.

IPL...Here I Come !!!

"This is a situation forced on me," said Bravo "It is not a decision I made. It was made by the West Indies' team medical staff and the selectors. The situation is that I have been advised by doctors to get my ankle stronger before I can play five-day cricket. The plan is to join the West Indian team in England when the one-day series begins."

Dwayne Bravo's surgically-repaired ankle has been deemed too fragile for West Indies' Test series in England, but strong enough to withstand the rigours of Twenty20 cricket. Bravo, speaking prior to boarding a Durban-bound flight on Tuesday, confirmed he will represent the Mumbai Indians in the IPL while his West Indian team-mates play two Tests against England.

Bravo was in a more conciliatory mood this week when discussing the circumstances under which he will be allowed to play for the Mumbai Indians while his West Indian teammates are engaged in a Test series in England.

"The tour is going on and the West Indies will take part in that series [in England]," he said. "I am excluded because of my situation with the injury. I have played five one-day games for the West Indies but I am yet to play in any longer forms of the game. I still am experiencing side effects [with the ankle]. I am trying to monitor it as best I can and work with the physio and the team doctor to get myself 100 percent fit. I will look to play in the Test series against Bangladesh later in the year and the one-day series in England before that."

Bravo, rated one of international cricket's premier all-rounders, was reported last year to have signed a contract worth between $200,000 and $250,000 with the Mukesh Ambani-owned Mumbai franchise, and rewarded them with 11 wickets at 21.09 and 178 runs at 29.66. So desperate were they for him to play a ninth and final game in 2008 - against Deccan Chargers on May 18 - the Indians agreed to fly Bravo to Jamaica via private jet to allow him to play the first Test against Australia beginning at Sabina Park four days later.

Mumbai might opt for a similar course of action in 2009, should Bravo prove similarly valuable in South Africa. The first match of the one-day series between the West Indies and England will be played at Headingley on May 21; the same day the Indians are due to play Delhi in their final home-and-away match of the IPL season.

IPL Teams: New Buys

Incase you missed what happened in the transfer market, here's a low down of where the money was spent at the IPL Auction.

Bangalore Royal Challengers

Kevin Pietersen (England) - Rs. 7.5 Crore ( US$ 1.55 million )

Jesse Ryder (New Zealand) - Rs. 78 Lakh ( US$ 160,000 )

Chennai Super Kings

Andrew Flintoff (England) - Rs. 7.5 Crore ( US$ 1.55 million )

Thilan Thushara(Sri Lanka) - Rs. 68 Lakh ( US$ 140,000 )

George Bailey (Australia) - Rs. 24 Lakh ( US$ 50,000 )

Rajasthan Royals

Shaun Tait (Australia) - Rs. 1.83 Crore ( US$ 375,000 )

Tyron Henderson (South Africa) - Rs. 3.18 Crore ( US$ 650,000 )

Mumbai Indians

JP Duminy (South Africa) - Rs. 4.65 Crore ( US$ 950,000 )

Kyle Mills (New Zealand) - Rs. 73 Lakh ( US$ 150,000 )

Mohammad Ashraful (Bangladesh) - Rs. 36 Lakh ( US$ 75,000 )

Delhi Daredevils

Owais Shah (England) - Rs. 1.34 Crore ( US$ 275,000 )

Paul Collingwood (England) - Rs. 1.34 Crore ( US$ 275,000 )

Kolkata Knight Riders

Mashrafe Mortaza (Bangladesh) - Rs. 2.94 Crore (US$ 600,000 )

Punjab Kings XI

Ravi Bopara (England) - Rs. 2.2 Crore ( US$ 450,000 )

Jerome Taylor (West Indies) - Rs. 73 Lakh ( US$ 150,000 )

Deccan Chargers

Fidel Edwards (West Indies) - Rs. 73 Lakh ( US$ 150,000 )

Dwayne Smith (West Indies) - Rs. 49 Lakh (US$ 100,000 )

Other IPL Team Compositions

Pollock Invaluable to Mumbai Indians says Rhodes

Former Protea Jonty Rhodes is "very impressed" by the work ethic the Mumbai Indians' rookies displayed at a training camp in Durban last week.

Rhodes a member of the Indian Premier League franchise's management, spent the last few days honing the fielding skills of the younger players in the Mumbai team. He worked closely with fellow former Protea Shaun Pollock, who too is a consultant to the Indians.

"The majority of the players we worked with will fit around the four overseas professionals and four Indian internationals so they are quite young and their skills are very Indian specific," Rhodes said.

"But they showed great enthusiasm and were very keen to throw themselves about. They watch a lot of international cricket and do not subscribe to old theory that India does not have a fielding culture. I was very impressed by how much they wanted to learn and absorb."

There is a growing belief among the IPL franchises that teams with a strong South African influence will have the edge in this year's tournament because of it being relocated to the Republic.

So with the two Proteas legends on the payroll of the Mumbai Indians, does Rhodes believe his team will start with an advantage over the seven other franchises?

"Shaun is going to be invaluable to the team. There's no doubt about that. He just has such a calm demeanour in the dressing room.

"Even when it was thought that the tournament was going to be held in India, and Shaun was still considering whether to come back for another year, the Mumbai management made it very clear they wanted him back," Rhodes said.

Although appreciating Pollock's involvement, Rhodes was, however, quick to dismiss the assumption that South African players will automatically be the stars of the second IPL season because of their knowledge of the conditions.

The leading South African player in the Mumbai Indians team is JP Duminy, who was signed for $950 000 while Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya also played domestic cricket in Durban for the KwaZulu-Natal Dolphins in 2009.

"International players adjust very quickly today. Most of the guys in all the teams are experienced international cricketers. They play all over the world and have learnt to adapt very quickly," Rhodes said.

"Take a guy like Dwayne Bravo. He plays for the West Indies in the Caribbean, where each island has different conditions, and he has learnt a lot on how to adapt all over. His experience will be very valuable."

The Mumbai Indians will kickstart the IPL against last year's finalists, the Chennai Super Kings, on Saturday, April 18 at Newlands.

By Zaahier Adams

How MI will make their way to the finals

This has been a memorable year for Mumbai in domestic cricket. They won a record 38th Ranji Trophy crown. But as the IPL approaches, the Mumbai Indians are hoping to add another glorious chapter to their history by turning last year's disappointing result on its head.

There is a buzz in the Mumbai Indians camp: a new coach in former India batsman Praveen Amre, who has been very successful with the Mumbai Ranji team, taking them to two titles in the last three years.

"When you work with Mumbai (Ranji team) you're the only decision maker," Amre says. "But here you have to work as a unit and adjust yourself to see that the franchise is going there and winning."

Amre will join Shaun Pollock, who has given up his playing gear for a role as mentor to the team, and Jonty Rhodes, who has been roped in as fielding coach. Ten young Mumbai Indians players have already been to Durban and trained with Pollock and Rhodes.

"As far as we saw, the pitches were pretty good, there was some good bounce and pretty good for batting," said Abhishek Nayar. "It was good for cricket: bowlers had some nip in it, the batsmen could time the ball as well."

The Mumbai Indians endured more near misses than hits last year. The players in particular remember close losses to Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals - defeats that cost them a semi-final place.

"The one-run loss to Kings XI Punjab last year is still fresh in my mind," says Ajinkya Rahane. "But close games are bound to be played in Twenty20 cricket. Fewer mistakes will give us a better chance."

So even as their key players Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh prepare for a final go at the Kiwis, the first batch of Mumbai Indians will leave for Durban in a couple of days.

Last Weeks Poll Review: Politics and Cricket collide

In last week’s Mumbai Indian Fan Club poll, we had asked our readers if "securityconcerns" were, in fact, the true reason for the IPL to be shifted to South Africa. 73% said that it was not. We knew without a moment’s hesitation that the terrorist attack in Pakistan on the Sri Lankan cricket team would cause more than a few ripples to the IPL schedule, but no one anticipated that an Indian Premier league would be played on foreign turf.

India has had security issues and I need not remind people of that but to tag the nation unsafe because of something that happened in another country would be ignorant - it’s as ridiculous as saying ‘some crazed lunatic locked his kids up for twenty years and impregnated his daughter in Austria, so children in London are not safe.’


Coming back to the poll, the results quite clearly showed that “security” was just a facade put in front of a gamut of political issues; mainly those of personal gain for our crooked chiefs in the upcoming elections.

With approval ratings steadily declining, the Congress couldn't afford another defence lapse, which would lead to their extermination from authority. They have been hosts to terrorist attacks, inflation, strikes and not to mention the biggest economic recession since independence; so if they seemed concerned, they needed to be. Quite obviously, there was an instantaneous “no!” echoing from the corridors of power in the Congress led states.

Meanwhile, the BJP had their tongues wagging at the opportunity of putting the Congress on the brink of blunder. Suddenly news arrives that matches will be played in Dharamshala! (Is there even a ground there up in those marijuana clad mountains??!!) The Advani led states insinuated that their states were safe and were ready to hold the IPL.

Then there was the issue with the Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan who revoked his decision of providing security for the cricketing event. The problem was born out of a tussle between Nationalist Congress Party and Congress over two Lok Sabha constituencies. A NCP minister was quoted saying that the “Congress wanted us to declare that Pawar will not be a prime ministerial candidate and also wanted us to part with Osmanabad and Nagar, where we have formidable candidates and will certainly win. The only way they knew they could put pressure on us was the IPL”. It all added up, BCCI chief Sharad Pawar would definitely hurt if the much anticipated IPL went down like the Titanic. So rather than cancelling it all together, Lalit Modi and his crew of cricketers are now sailing to South Africa.

What this whole episode has done is – piss a whole lot of people off. A bunch of fans told me that they will not vote because of this. I think that’s absolutely preposterous. Yes, I agree that the Indian political arena is full of slimy politicians but to call the entire basket a bunch of bad apples and not do anything about it is just despicable on our part. There are some good people out there, just do your research and wake up from this slump of apathy. If you honestly believe that nothing will change and don’t do anything to change it… I don’t even need to finish that sentence really. We promised that we would rise to change things after 26/11 and here is our chance… wake the f@(# up! Get out and vote!

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Amre for Assistant Coach

Mumbai: South Africa holds fond memories for Pravin Amre. Apart from slamming a memorable 103 on Test debut in Durban, the former Indian batsman also represented the Boland state team in their domestic season.

And the rainbow nation beckons Amre once again after the two-time Ranji Trophy winning coach was approached by the Mumbai Indians franchise to join them as part of their coaching staff for the IPL. It has been learnt that the Mumbai Indians are likely to appoint Amre as assistant coach and have asked him to prepare a presentation.

“Yes, we have approached him but nothing has been finalised on paper,” confirms a Mumbai Indians official. “He has past experience of playing in South Africa and is also a very good planner. We wanted someone who can help the Mumbai Indians abroad. And Amre was the best choice,” the official added.