Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Editorial: Mohit Goyal

Indian Premier League Match Preview – Semi final 2

Kings XI Punjab Vs Chennai Super Kings

Semi final 2 is to be played between the teams which stood at the second and third positions in the league.

The Armies – Kings XI Punjab v Chennai Super Kings

Kings XI Punjab with 20 points stood at the top of the league winning 10 of their 14 matches.Delhi Daredevils qualified by grabbing the third. They were victorious in 8 of their 14 matches. They ended on 16 points.

The Battleground – Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Wankhede always has purchase for spinners and there was enough encouragement for spinners in the first semi final.

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Editorial: Mohit Goyal

Indian premier League Match Preview

Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals at Chennai

Chennai lost to Bangalore and made things difficult for themselves. But rain gods came to their rescue by washing out Delhi’s last match. Now they need to win atleast one of their two tough matches against Rajasthan Royals and Deccan Chargers or hope that Mumbai beat Delhi. Rajasthan on the other hand are looking to give few of their stars some rest because if they reach the final to be played on 1st of June, they will be playing five matches within nine days.

Men at the Helm

Tired of listening and saying again and again but both of these, Warny and MSD have been the best captains in this league. Warne didn’t have the star power in the team and Dhoni’s team started as a weak bowling side and after the departure of Hayden and Hussey, batting has become very lean and still both these leaders have blossomed.

We have the bat

Rajasthan have looked a very strong batting side but they will miss Smith and Watson who are likely to be rested. Still, Pathan, Younis Khan, Kaif and Asnoskar will be holding fort. Chennai dearly need their batsmen to fire. They depend heavily on Dhoni and Morkel to score fast. If both of them fail, it would be pretty difficult to score big for Chennai.

We have the ball

Rajasthan have been the best team bowling wise in the league. The bowlers have followed Warne’s instructions and bowled some immaculate line and length. For Chennai Gony has been very good, Murali has been consistently econo0mical but needs to get amongst wickets and Ntini seems to be coming into rhythm but there is always soem chance that he will go for big runs.

Patrolling Party

Both the teams have been fielding pretty well throughout the league. They haven’t been out of the world but have shown consistency and commitment levels have been pretty high.

High on betting meter

Rajasthan are slightly higher on the betting meter with gains around 90 percent while Chennai give around 110 percent.

Who gets the tick?

Rajasthan start as strong favorites and a win for them would keep the league round alive and interesting till the last day.

Partho Mitra: Mumbai

Seasonal Nor-wester Storms disrupted DLF IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings and once again Duckworth Lewis method was used which awarded the win to Chennai on the basis of run rate.

Knight Riders started off badly with the loss of Salmun Butt, Hafeez, Ganguly and Hussey - the major bats but managed a moderate score of 145 for the loss of 5 wickets.

Chennai opened with a firm stand between Parthiv Patel and Stephen Fleming who played steadily given the low target.

Chennai managed to maintain there league position while Knight Riders slipped into further uncertainty. Ntini bagged the MOM award for his superb spell of 4 for 21 with a hat-trick in which he bagged Hafeez, Ganguly, Das and David Hussey - all important wickets.

In the other match Mumbai Indians continued their dream run with a straight win against Deccan Chargers who once gain failed to make it in their home ground. However, R P Singh got the purple cap while Dwayne Bravo who leaves shortly bagged the man of the match award with 3/24.

Sahid Afridi once again failed to make any mark with his bat while it was not a lucky day for Gilchrist and Sachin and the crowd missed fireworks badly except for a momentary blasting by Sanath Jayasuriya.

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