Defending IPL champion Rajasthan Royals kicks off IPL 2009 mission on Saturday (18 April 2009) when they take on Bangalore Royal Challengers at Newlands, Cape Town. Rajasthan started IPL 2008 as an underdog, but under the shrewd guidance and leadership of former Australian great Shane Warne, Rajasthan ended up winning the tournament. Naturally, Rajasthan is leveled with favorite’s tag this time, while Bangalore Royal Challengers, one of the weakest IPL teams of last season, is now considered to be underdog for the second edition of Indian Premier League (IPL).
Match: Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Rajasthan Royals, IPL 2009 Group Stage
Venue: Newlands, Cape Town
Date: 18 April 2009, Saturday
Kick off: Local time: 16:30; GMT: 14:30; IST: 20:00
Live on: Sony SET Max
However, I think, Bangalore Royal Challengers could emerge as the surprise package in IPL 2009 with the inclusion of two in-from batsman: Captain Kevin Pietersen and Jesse Ryder. Ryder has been in sparkling form in the home series against India. For Pietersen, I hope, you do not need any introduction. Though Bangalore will get him only for two weeks, Pietersen could inspire the team and boost up the confidence level of Bangalore Royal Challengers who did not have anything from last season to inspire themselves. Another important thing is that Bangalore has a balanced squad in the combination of young as well as experienced players. Experienced players like Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher can step in to help the side with their experience whenever needed, while the young players like South African all rounder Roelof van der Merwe, who sparked in the recent home series against Australia, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, who is one of the twenty20 specialists for India, wicketkeeper Sreevats Goswami and Pankaj Singh.
Rajasthan will miss a number of players this season. Specially, last season’s most wicket taker Pakistani pacer Sohail Tanvir was instrumental behind Rajasthan’s triumph last season. Moreover, Rajasthan will get all rounder Shan Watson, who was last year’s player of the tournament, only for two weeks due to his international duty with Australia in UAE against Pakistan. To add to the Rajasthan’s worry, Watson is available only as a batsman and would not offer his excellent medium pace due to health concern.
Still, Rajasthan has some excellent players who are proven match winners. They have a destructive opener in Graeme Smith, while there are effective all rounders like Dimitri Mascarenhas from England and South African Tyron Henderson. Ravindra Jadeja is a talented middle order batsman who can outperform opposition bowlers in his day. Shane Warne may not have played competitive since last year’s IPL tournament, but the leg spinner could be crucial by bringing breakthroughs for Rajasthan and match winning bowling performances. Moreover, his ability to score quickly in the lower order could also be proven decisive. However, Rajasthan Royals has a ‘mystery package’ in 18-year-old left arm pacer Kamran Khan who was recently hailed very highly by the team captain Shane Warne. Rajasthan’s pace attack could fill the void of Sohail Tanvir with the return of in-form pacer Munaf Patel.
Online Live Score and Updates
Here, I am giving some live score and update websites from where you can get the live score and updates of the match:
Cricinfo
Thetwenty20cup
Cricketnext
Cricket.sulekha
indianpremierleagues
stickcricket
cricpoint
cricbuzz
indvsauslivescore
squidoo
Sify
cricketworld
sports.yahoo
I do not want to pick up any side as favorite, just considering their performance of last season. In fact, lots of things have been changed in the last one year and I do not think that the upcoming match between Bangalore Royal Challengers and Rajasthan Royals will be another one-sided match like last season’s two meetings of these two sides, with Rajasthan winning on both occasions pretty comfortably. I think, the upcoming match will be full of excitement which cricket fans would like to enjoy to the fullest.
No comments:
Post a Comment