Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Editorial: Mohit Goyal

Indian premier League Match Preview

Deccan Chargers Vs Chennai Super Kings

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)

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Punjab all-rounder Manpreet Gony Friday to replace a injured Sudeep Tyagi for The Chennai Super Kings the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) starting April 18. Chief selector of the Super Kings team V.B. Chandrasekar said: “Gony was very much in the loop. Now that Tyagi is injured, we have decided to sign up Gony as a replacement as allowed by the IPL Board.”

Chandrasekar added that Gony was highly recommended by Bhupinder Singh, one of the national selectors and has performed well in the Deodhar and Ranji Trophy matches.

“Gony is six feet, four inches tall. He bowls with reasonable pace and can hit the ball hard. He is the right kind of player for our team and has done fairly well in the Deodhar and Ranji games,” Chandrasekar added.

Gony has played five first-class games and has taken 13 wickets with an economy rate of 3.51. He has scored 122 runs in seven innings for an average of 20.33.

The Super Kings, owned by India Cements, will be led by India’s one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Kepler Wessels is the coach and has physical trainer Gregory King and physio Tommy Simsek as his support staff.

The IPL, to be contested among eight teams, will start April 18 and will feature 59 matches over 44 days, including two semi-finals and the final at Mumbai June 1. All matches will be played under floodlights.

The Chennai team boasts of seven foreign players in Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey (both Australia), Stephen Fleming and Jacob Oram (both New Zealand), Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel (both South Africa) and Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka).

Chennai Super Kings with Dhoni in the lead is going strong everyday and is a strong contender for IPL.