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.
Punjab have sealed a place in the semis with rain washing out the match between Delhi and Kolkata. They will like to keep the winning form going running in to the knock out stages. The pre tournament favorites Deccan are out of contention but will like to prove a point and finish on a high note to give their fans something to look out for in the next season.
Men at the Helm
Yuvi and Gilly both have led their sides very well but the difference has been that while Yuvi’s boys have been excellent, Gilly’s men have simply been dismal.
We have the bat
Punjab batters are in superb form. The only concern for Punjab is the relative lack of form for Yuvraj Singh. Deccan meanwhile have been improving. The big stars didn’t fire in the last few matches but others took the centre. Actually its been the bowlers who have let them down in the last few matches.
We have the ball
In the bowling department Punjab look one up with Pathan being consistent through out the league and Sreesanth running into some serious form. Charger RP Singh might be amongst the leading wicket takers but his tally is very misleading because he has given too many runs for those wickets and very few of them are top order batsmen.
Patrolling Party
Punjab dropped a few catches in their last match against Mumbai but effected some pretty good run outs. They have had some off days but have generally fielded well. Deccan on the other hand have at the most been patchy. They need to field well today to pep up their bowlers.
High on betting meter
Punjab are sitting high on most betting meters with offerings of 4 on 7 while Deccan give 11 on 8.
Who gets the tick?
Punjab start as favorites for this match but one can never count out a team like Deccan. They have players who can make a day their own.
Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee said on Saturday that he was looking forward to sharing the new ball with Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Praising the Indian bowlers as “world class,” Lee said: “It would be great to share the new ball with them.”
The Australian quick also rubbished suggestion that the Indian Premier League (IPL) would lure players away from national duty, saying both could co-exist without being detrimental to each other.
“I don’t think we should compare or match the IPL with Australian team as both have their own place,” said Lee, who would be playing for Kings XI Punjab.
On being quizzed about a recent survey conducted by Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) which says nearly half of the Aussie players were willing to give up their central contracts to play in the cash-awash IPL, Lee said: “I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t do both (play for Australia and the IPL simultaneously).”
“My heart is for Australian team and wearing baggy green is a great honour,” he added.
Coach Tom Moody said there wouldn’t be any lack of motivation because of the presence of players from different countries.
“They are all professionals and have played in different conditions at different times…A lot of pride is at stake,” Moody said.
Preity Zinta, co-promoter of the team, Lee and Moody kick-started ticket sales with the first two selling and autographing tickets.
“It is great to see so many people turning up to buy tickets and joining us to support and cheer Kings XI Punjab,” Zinta said.
The owners of King’s XI Punjab, better known as the Mohali IPL team, Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia gave an interview to Indian Tv Channel CNN-IBN - some excerpts below from the Interview.
Preity Zinta: Irfan Pathan, Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Piyush Chawla…yes you’re right. We’ve got everybody we wanted. Thank God we already had Yuvi on the team.
About her involvement with IPL and Cricket she said that - she is purely in for the game. She has been a sportsperson all her life and she thinka it’s time for some action now.
On the Auction front she pointed to Ness wadia and said that the department was with him and Tom and she thinks that they did a fantastic job and thanked them and the coach also for setting the best team.
Ness Wadia added that there was a lot of planning like any business meeting or pitch and went through it (our strategy) two-three times and also on the phone during lunch time. He thinks that they had strategies in place. Most important thing was that they were not interested in pushing other people’s prices up. “We were really interested in getting the players we wanted to get. We were so focussed on what we were doing, frankly speaking, the rest didn’t really matter. Of course, there’s luck as well” - Ness Wadia added.
How did the Brett Lee and Sreesanth happen? Did you go for Sreesanth because of the character he brings to the game?
On Sreesanth Preity Zinta added that they have a fast wicket and on fast wicket they need fast bowlers. She again mentioned that the strategy was put together by Tom and Ness with budget in mind.
About Sreesanth Ness wadia added that he is one of the better players today in the Indian team. He’s been through that first high and now he’s sort of coming off, not into a low but in sort of a lull like most sportsmen do where they start thinking where am I, what’s happened etc. I’m pretty sure he is going to bounce back, and as far as the selection strategy was: everyone had 10 players and there was a number to be pulled out and whichever number came out, that was the number for bidding. So when we were looking at spinners, we were short of spinners and we had no spinners left. We had Ramesh Powar and Piyush Chawla, so we just wanted to safeguard ourselves and we took a lot of decisions which were risking our model as opposed to just going and buying for the sake of buying.
On her involvement with Kings XI Punjab - Preity was absolutely serious. She said - “King’s XI Punjab, is a team of Punjab and there cannot be a chance we don’t mention Punjab. It’s not a country playing another country. It’s a state playing another state. In Bombay, people have already started calling me K11P, as they do it in the film industry. But yes, I’m treating IPL like a film. I’m dedicating three months of my life to it till the tournament gets over and then I will go back to films. I have four films releasing this year. So it is a very exciting year for me in terms of film as well as cricket. Hopefully, we will win the tournament.” She also added that she is going to tell all my producers to not release any movie between 19 April and 30 May. It will be suicide.
Lets hope we see a nice and cheerpul Priety in the field dancing around with every sixer by Yuvraj and every wicket by Sreesanth.
Yash Gandhi, a 17-year-old cricketer from Wadala, is over the moon
after being picked in the Mohali team for the forthcoming Indian
Premier League (IPL) under the scholarship scheme.
The class 12 student of HR college was contacted by the team’s
cricket manager Sachin Bajaj and was taken on board on March 24 and
has been named in the team list announced by the Board of Control for
Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday.
“We have signed Yash under the scholarship scheme. He is a talented
cricketer and we have a long-term strategy and wanted to invest at the
grass route level,” Bajaj told HT.
Sahil Kukreja and Wilkin Mota are two other cricketers from Mumbai who have been signed by the Mohali team.
Yash said he will join the team on April 8. “I will have to work
hard now. It will be a big test for me,” said Yash, who also played for
Copsewood West Indian Wanderers Second in the Boundary Warwickshire
League in England last year.
Yash had also scored an unbeaten 365 for Don Bosco, Matunga against St Sebastian in Harris Shield semifinal in 2006.
