Mother of all clashes, this could well be the dress rehearsal for the finals of the inaugural Indian Premier League and both sides would be looking to score points over the other.
Men at the Helm
Yuvi and Warny both have been inspirational. Yuvi hasn’t performed as well himself but he has a great influence on the younger players. The way he has handled Sreesanth and Chawla and encouraged Marsh and VRV has been phenomenal. Warny has been Midas for the team. Both have handled pressure like only few can in the world.
We have the bat
On paper, Punjab may look a better batting side but apart from Marsh and Sangakkara, others havn’t had many big scores. On other hand for Rajasthan, Smith, Asnodkar, Watson and Pathan have consistently made good scores.
We have the ball
If Punjab have Sreesanth, Pathan and Chawla superb form, Rajasthan have the bowler of the tournament thus far, Sohail Tanveer and the spinner of the tournament, Shane Warne in their ranks. Munaf, Siddharth and Watson too have hit the right line and lengths more often than not. Yusuf Pathan has come in real handy as well.
Patrolling Party
Rajasthan have been very good in the field, while Punjab have had a few poor fielding games. Both will want to eliminate lapses in fielding to give their bowlers an edge over the opponents.
High on betting meter
Rajasthan are slightly high on certain betting meters owing to their better record, while the teams are at level on others.
Who gets the tick?
Rajasthan are on a roll and it will take either an outrageously superb spell of bowling from Sreesanth or Pathan or a lapse on the part of Rajasthan batsmen to make Punjab victorious.
The English Cricket Board has announced that England’s tour to West Indies next spring will have an early finish, leaving sufficient space for centrally contracted players to compete in the second Indian Premier League - reported the Guardian UK.
The tour finishes on April 4, just six days before the 2008 IPL is due to start. It makes for a stark contrast with England’s last tour to the region in 2004, which ran on through to May 5.
It’s the last league game for both these teams. Hyderabad are languishing at the bottom of the table and this is their last chance to win a game at home. For Chennai, this is an extremely important game. A victory here and they will progress to the next round. Though Chennai start as favourites, they haven’t been in the best of form of late: A shock defeat at the hands of Bangalore, when they failed to chase a meagre 127 was followed by a 10-run defeat against Rajasthan.
What if Chennai lose today? If Chennai lose today and Mumbai win tomorrow, Mumbai will advance on account of better net run rate. (Chennai’s current NRR is -0.241 while Mumbai’s is +0.531). Should Mumbai lose tomorrow, Chennai will go through to the semis(Chennai are on 14 points, Mumbai are on 12)
Indians will have to win this match this match to keep their semi final chances under their own control. Else they will need Deccan who are not in that good a form to beat Chennai. Royals on the other hand would not want this dangerous Mumbai side to advance and would definitely like to make like difficult for them by beating them here.
Men at the Helm
Shane Warne has been simply superb throughout the league and everything he’s touched has turned gold. He would to be looking to try out a few combinations before the knock out stages start. Sachin on the other hand has been calm and cool but not been as sharp and quick as required for such a fast paced game. He mismanaged the distribution of overs in the match against Punjab and the team selection too has lacked thought. He has banked too much on the opponents’ weaknesses rather than his team’s strength.
Even with a berth reserved in the semi-finals Shane Warne and his boys continued with a display of professional cricket and continued their winning spree once again.
The match today can be described as one of the best matches in recent time. Exactly what you can expect when two cool and scheming captains meet. An excellent start by Rajasthan Royals with a brilliant knock of 91 by Grahme Smith with 9 boundaries and 4 sixes.Equally bright innings of 41 by Swapnil Asnodhkar and 53 not out by Kamran Akmal saw Rajasthan Royals sail smoothly to a comfortable score of 211 for five in 20 overs.
But yet if you need to see a Captain stressed out after such a good start you must see Shane Warne constantly scheming using his plan a, plan b and plan c just to put a stop to the Chennai Super Kings run machine.
Chennai got off a to great start thanks mainly to Raina and Parthiv. Morkel took control of the situation later and with 35 required last off the last three overs, the match was evenly poised. But Warne’s smart field placements meant that Chennai lost 4 wickets in the last 3 overs and fell 10 runs short.
An early wicket of Stephen Fleming for an irresponsible run-out and brilliant fielding by the Royals caused much damage though Parthiv Patel (54) and Suresh Raina (45) added decent runs at the start. Morkel scored a high powered 71 of just 40 balls which also earned him the man of the match, apart from booking two wickets earlier. For Rajasthan Royals Sohail Tanvir needs a mention for getting 3 wickets for 33 runs in 4 overs.
Chennai has one match left to play with Deccan Chargers and they need to win that match desperately for a chance to be in the semi-finals.
