IPL 2013: RCB face KKR in Ranchi`s IPL debut

Ranchi: Inching closer to a playoff berth, Royal Challengers Bangalore will face an inconsistent Kolkata Knight Riders, who would be eyeing revenge, when the two sides clash in the city`s first Pepsi IPL game at the Jharkhand Cricket Association`s International stadium on Sunday.

It is exactly a month since the two teams clashed in Bangalore where Chris Gayle blew away KKR with a 50-ball 85 that was laced with nine sixes.

Riding on Gayle`s brilliance and some other notable performers, RCB are among the top-four in the points table while KKR are languishing in the bottom half.


Both teams will go into the match high on confidence winning their last games. While KKR comprehensively beat a hapless Pune Warriors, RCB pulled off a thriller against the Delhi Daredevils on Friday.

For RCB, Gayle`s rather quiet outings in the past few matches would be a concern. But that has more or less been compensated by the likes of skipper Virat Kohli, who was quite impressive during his 58-ball 99 in the previous match.

Also finding his feet is the fit-again Cheteshwar Pujara, who would be expected to play the sheet-anchor role given that he is not exactly a big-hitter.

In fact, batting is hardly a concern for RCB with pinch-hitters like Moises Henriques and A B de Villiers making up the lower half of their line-up.

KKR, in contrast, have been throughly exposed as a brittle batting unit. Though skipper Gautam Gambhir found some of his lost touch with a half-century against Pune but that would hardly make up for the failure of others against a team like RCB.

Veteran all-rounder Jacques Kallis has been struggling and similar is the case with expensive-buy Yusuf Pathan, who has not been able to justify the captain`s continuing faith in him.

On the bowling front, RCB came in for some thrashing on Friday night even though medium-pacer Jaydev Unadkat stood out with a fiver in four economical overs conceding just 25 runs.

But the likes of Vinay Kumar and Henriques leaked runs at 10 per over and that would certainly be a cause of concern for the team.

KKR`s bowling, on the other hand, delivered against Pune but that can hardly be a measure of how good they are given that the Warriors are a team in doldrums.

Given their current form, RCB would start outright favourites and it would be interesting to see if KKR manage to get the better off their mighty opponent.

Teams (from):

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (C), Manvinder Bisla, Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis, Rajat Bhatia, Laxmipathy Balaji, Sarabjit Ladda, Brad Haddin, Debabrata Das, Iqbal Abdulla, Brett Lee, Ryan McLaren, Eoin Morgan, Sunil Narine, Sumit Narwal, Suchitra Senanayake, Pradeep Sangwan, Shami Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary, James Pattinson.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), A B de Villiers, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Andrew McDonald, Arun Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Chris Gayle, Christopher Barnwell, Daniel Christian, Daniel Vettori, Harshal Patel, Jaidev Unadkat, K P Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Moises Henriques, Murali Kartik, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pankaj Singh, Prasanth Parameswaran, R Vinay Kumar, Ravi Rampaul, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Aravind, Sandeep Warrier, Saurabh Tiwary, Sheldon Jackson, Sunny Sohal, Syed Mohammad, Tilakaratne Dilshan, Vijay Zol, Zaheer Khan.

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IPL 2013: Delhi Daredevils vs Royal Challengers Bangalore- Live score

New Delhi: Already knocked out of the tournament`s play-off stage, Delhi Daredevils have just pride to play for but Royal Challengers Bangalore have a lot at stake when the two teams clash in a Pepsi IPL match on Friday.

In a complete contrast to their last year`s performance, Delhi have not looked even a pale shadow of themselves. With nine defeats from 12 matches, it has only gone from bad to worse for the home side.

In the current scenario, however, they can play without any pressure. There is no burden of expectations on the misfiring batters and out-of-sorts bowlers. They now have nothing to lose and can just go on to play party-poppers.

Delhi`s top order has failed for inexplicable reasons. Neither Virender Sehwag nor captain Mahela Jayawardene has lived up to their reputations. Australian left-hander David Warner is the only one who has done his bit.

Bangalore, who may still be recovering from a rude David Miller shock, cannot afford to take a step wrong as the fight for the play-offs is tight.

Sitting at the top, Chennai Super Kings are almost assured of a berth in the knock-out stage but there is a close battle among Mumbai Indians, Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals for the remaining three slots for the play-offs.

In their last four matches at the league stage, Bangalore play three against teams already out of the race -- Delhi, Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab.

So, before they clash with strong contenders Chennai in their last match on May 18 before the play-offs, Bangalore would look to consolidate their position in these matches.

However, it may be tricky for Bangalore since laggards Delhi, who have nothing at stake, may come up with a surprise performance on their day and may spoil their chances.

Batting is not a worry for Bangalore. They have been consistently scoring in the vicinity of 200 while batting first and have chased the targets easily with Chris Gayle in his explosive best form.

But the way they were blown away by the Miller storm in their last match against Kings XI Punjab, bowling is certainly a concern for them.

For the four matches in a row, the Bangalore side have conceded more than 170 runs -- against Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan, Pune Warriors and Mumbai Indians.

West Indies paceman Ravi Rampaul has been brilliant upfront and at the death overs but R P Singh and R Vinay Kumar have proved expensive.

The best thing for Bangalore bowlers is that they are up against a struggling batting line-up.

The Teams (From):

Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (C), Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Umesh Yadav, Manpreet Juneja, Ashish Nehra, Naman Ojha, Irfan Pathan, Andre Russell, Kedar Jadhav, Ajit Agarkar, Johan Botha, Unmukt Chand, Morne Morkel, Shabaz Nadeem, Ben Rohrer, Royston Dias, Muralitharan Gautam, Sidharth Kaul, Jeevan Mendis, Yogesh Nagar, Sujeet Nayak, Pavan Negi, Aristh Singhvi, Roelof van der Merwe, Venugopal Rao and Gulam Bodi.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), A B de Villiers, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Andrew McDonald, Arun Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Chris Gayle, Christopher Barnwell, Daniel Christian, Daniel Vettori, Harshal Patel, Jaidev Unadkat, K P Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Moises Henriques, Murali Kartik, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pankaj Singh, Prasanth Parameswaran, R Vinay Kumar, Ravi Rampaul, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Aravind, Sandeep Warrier, Saurabh Tiwary, Sheldon Jackson, Sunny Sohal, Syed Mohammad, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Vijay Zol, Zaheer Khan.

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IPL 2013: Rajasthan Royals remain invincible at home; beat DD by 9 wkts

Jaipur: Jaipur: Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane struck fluent half-centuries as Rajasthan Royals inched closer towards securing a play-off berth with a comprehensive nine-wicket victory against Delhi Daredevils in an Indian Premier League match, here on Tuesday.


Dravid led from the front with a classy 48-ball-53, his fourth half-century in this IPL edition, while Rahane played an equally impressive unbeaten knock of 63 as Royals maintained their impeccable record at home. They now have 16 points with eight wins and look like firm contenders for a berth in knock-out round.

Delhi Daredevils, whose season has gone from bad to worse stay put on eight position with six points.

Royals registered their seventh win at home with 13 balls to spare, scoring 155 for one. Shane Watson remained unbeaten on 14-ball 28, laced with three fours and one six.

Dravid and Rahane added 108 runs for the opening-wicket partnership in just 13.4 overs with the former India captain playing the more aggressive knock of the two.

In the process, Royals also registered their highest opening-wicket partnership in this edition of the IPL, surpassing 98 runs against Pune Warriors last week.


For Daredevils, Rohrer hit a fine 39-ball 63 under trying conditions while Mahela Jayawardene (34) and Kedar Jadhav (23 no) also chipped in with useful contributions to help their side post a competitive 154 for four but, in the end, the total did not prove to be enough.

Royals made a confident start to their run-chase with the trusted opening pair of Dravid and Rahane once again providing their team a good start.

Both made short work of Delhi bowlers and enthralled a near sell-out crowd with their vast repertoire of stroke-play.

Delhi's misery was further compounded by their butter-finger fielders when Rahane was dropped by Pawan Negi at extra-cover off Morne Morkel when the batsman was at an individual score of 4.

Rahane made full use of the reprieve and raised a century-plus partnership with Dravid. It was a treat to watch vintage Dravid show as he cut and drove Delhi bowlers to reach his second successive fifty in the tournament in just 45 balls.

The fact that Daredevils made as many as four changes in their bowling department for this game did not come to any help to them as the duo of Dravid and Rahane played them with utmost ease.

Dravid was finally out in the innings' 14th over when he was caught by Ajit Agarkar off Siddharth Kaul at long-on while going for an expensive pull. However, Rahane and Watson ensured that Royals remained invincible at home with an unconquered 47-run partnership for the second wicket.

Earlier, Rohrer put on display some innovative shots to single-handedly guide Daredevils past 150 runs, which looked unlikely at one stage with the visitors struggling at 78 for four.

He found an able ally in Kedar Jadhav (23 no, 21 balls, 2x4) and together in his company added an unbeaten 76-run partnership for the fifth wicket. The last five overs yielded 53 runs for the Daredevils.

Electing to bat under scorching heat, Delhi were off to a poor start as Virender Sehwag (11) and CM Gautam (2) were sent back to pavilion in quick succession with scorecard reading 22 for two.

Sehwag looked in good touch, hitting James Faulkner for two consecutive fours, before the lanky Australian pacer flummoxed him with a slower ball which swung in uprooting the off-stump.

Sehwag, as usual, committed himself to the shot a tad too early playing across the line.

Gautham, playing his first IPL match, departed in the very next over as he chased a wide delivery outside his off stump to give a simple catch to wicket-keeper Sanju Samson off Shane Watson.

Skipper Jayawardene held one end strongly and, in the company of David Warner (13), tried to resurrect the innings while picking up a few occasional boundaries. That included four hits to the fence off Shaun Tait's second over.

However, Warner failed to contribute much to the team's cause and was caught by Sachin Baby off Stuart Binny at extra cover just before the first strategic time-out.

Rohrer tried to break the shackles with two successive fours off Mumbai leg-spinner Pravin Tambe, who became the oldest IPL debutant at 41 years and 212 days.

Jayawardene too tried to free his arm and hit Siddharth Trivedi for a six over mid?off before he ran out of patience and gifted his wicket at a crucial juncture.

Jayawardene failed to read the line of the ball and landed Dravid an easy catch at mid-wicket off Trivedi. At 78 for four, Rohrer took the onus on himself and mixed caution with aggression to take the team’s total past 150-run mark.

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IPL 2013: Hyderabad beat Mumbai by 7 wkts

Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in a Pepsi Indian Premier League match played at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal here on Wednesday.

Mumbai Indians: 129 for 4 in 20 overs (Dwayne Smith 38, Ambati Rayudu 34 not out; Ishant Sharma 2/15, Amit Mishra 2/24).

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 130 for 3 in 18 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 73 not out, Hanuma Vihari 25; Mitchell Johnson 1/21, Dhawal Kulkarni 1/13).

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