IPL 2: Rajasthan Royals - Practice match

Rajasthan Royals and Captain Shane Warne lost the first of the two T20 warm-up matches against the Cape Cobras by 28 runs. If there is one thing that Captian Warne would be regretting is the absence of his stars, Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir. The Cobras fielded a new look side of what is normally a star studded side, which includes the likes of Gibbs and Morkel brothers. The cobras have been rated as the top T20 side in South Africa. Cobras won the toss and batted first. Much to Warne's likeliness the cobras lost early wickets, at one point 30 for 3. For the Royals it was kamran Khan a new addition to the 27 member Rajasthan royals squad. Kamran khan,18, rattled a few stumps with his slinging action and surprise pace.



The Cobras middle order batted sensibly and kept the scoreboard ticking before the final on-slaught to reach a score of 142 for 8 in their 20 overs. With not many experienced cricketers in the Royals side, The target proved to be a tough ask as they were bowled out for just 114 leaving cobras with a 28 run victory. Shane Warne was particularly pleased with the effort as most of them are new to South African conditions and will take time to settle down to. He hopes that addition of the international cricketers to the team will help in their performance. Warne was particularly thankful to the Cobras for the practice and said that he hoped this would help the players prepare for the task ahead.







Shane also mentioned that he would miss his stars of the last season, Watson who is on the Australian squad named for the series in Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and Sohail Tanvir who was forced not to participate following pakistan boards diapproval of the IPL. Both were instrumental with the performance RR posted last time around. Warne hopes that the new imports in the name of Henderson will prove as good replacements for the men he's lost.

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Kunal Janu
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IPL 2: Shilpa Shetty : New Owner.. New Cheerleader.. New Begining

Shilpa Shetty, The hot young bollywood actress who now is a 12 percent stake holder in Rajasthan Royals, the champions of the inagural season of the IPL, will be hoping for a repeat performace form the side as the first batch of 9 players arrived in Johanesburg. This bacth includes Mohammed Kaif, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja who expressed that sentiment before departing for South Africa for the second edition of the IPL. Both Kaif and Yusuf agreed that the pressure would obviously be there because of their fairy-tale like victory in the inaugural season last year.



Kaif said that they will have to treat the tournament as a new beginning to nullify all the pressure that is upon them as defending champions. "It will be a fresh start because last year we played in India, the conditions suited our bowlers and the batsmen and fielders supported them well," Kaif said. "But this is a new start." Adapting to foreign conditions will be another key factor to the team and kaif agreed as he indicated that the bounce and pace of wickets in South Africa are not the same as they are in India.

South Africa has always hosted good batting tracks which also has good pace and bounce for the bowlers which helps keep the match alive. SA had successfully hosted the inaugural season of the T20 world championships 2 years back and none of the matches could be called low scoring. The only thing that the teams will be missing thsi time around is the local support, but what we see from watching the current matches between SA and Australia, the crowd support is very high and there are one or two Indian flags amongst the crowd, always. If not for the players, the spectators may flood the stadiums to catch Shah Rukh Khan, Priety Zinta, Shilpa Shetty in action :P

The presence of Smith in the team will help the team in performance. Smith brings in experience playing on South African conditions and the form that he carries playing host to the Australian team now. He will also be assisting Shane Warne as the vice captain of the team and the addition of Tyron Henderson will give the additional boost. However the team will miss the services of Pakistan fast bowler Sohail Tanvir who played a major part in the win last year both with the bat and the ball. The Pakistan Player contracts were suspended after the refusal of the Pakistan cricket board to participate in the IPL following the attack in Mumbai.

"We are going to miss some key players: Tanvir did really well last season and his four overs were something special every game," Kaif said. "Kamran Akmal did his job well whenever given the chance, both behind the stumps and with the bat. We have some new players this season so I'm looking forward to meeting the entire squad."


Yusuf said Tanvir was just one of the building blocks of Rajasthan's success and this year the team would need to move ahead in his absence. "Having won the championship will help us," Kaif said. "That and the youngsters having done well last season will also help. That was the secret to our success. In this format the opposition will look for the new players they don't know about and that helped last year for us." Jadeja, who hit headlines with his power cameos last year, said the responsibility is now on players like him to remain consistent. "The key player will be that one who will start well, remain consistent and then perform well in the main games as the tournament progresses."

Addition of Shipla Shetty will add to the glamor quotient and the players will want to perform really well to receive hugs and kisses from their owner, specially after they saw Priety Zinta throw a few at her players in the last season :P Jokes apart, There will be battles fought both on and off the field as to which team has the best looking owner this season :P





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IPL 2: Team Preview : Rajasthan Royals

The inaugural season's champins Rajasthan Royals managed to work out a winning formulas under the guidance of shane Warne, and would expect to do the same this year too. The team may not have the big names in the squad but they proved that playing as a team and celebrating other players success is the winning formula. Fined for not spending enough money on the side, Emerging Media, team owners are hopeful of a repeat performance with new recruits in the likes of Shaun Tait and Tyron Henderson.


Their Indian players were not the best of the lot, but Warne turned them into a formidable unit, and found two highly successful foreign recruits in Sohail Tanvir and Shane Watson. Tanvir is unavailable and Watson doubtful due to Australia's schedule and fitness worries, but Rajasthan have found adequate replacements at the auction. Shaun Tait the tall fast bowler with slinging action from Australia is tailor made for Twenty20, and Tyron Henderson, one of the surprise picks at US$650,000, has proved his worth with skills in batting and bowling playing for MiddleSex. Yet to make international debut, Tyron will make his first international appearance courtesy Rajasthan Royals.

It will be a tall order to match Watson's heroics from last season, but Henderson is an impact player in this format. The team will also be boosted by the availability of Morne Morkel and Justin Langer. Both had to miss the inaugural edition due to commitments to the specific counties..Dimitri Mascarenhaus will only make Rajasthan a stronger side. Yusuf Pathan made his way into the national side courtesy his power hitting and match winning performances. Mohammed kaif, Munaf patel and the likes of Ravindra Jadeja will have to play out of their skins to impress the national selectors. The big doubt however lies over the availability of Graeme smith who is expected to have a surgery post the current South Africa - Australia series. One other important person missing in the team is Kamran Akmal.

Rajasthan Royals play their first match of this season on April 18th against the Bangalore Royal Challengers. for Full match schedules go here: IPL 2 Schedule

Both Kamran Akmal and Sohail tanvir's contract has been suspended, which means they cannot be picked by any other team for a contract period of 2 years. Both players are serving their second year of the contract. If they were terminated, they would have been available for transfer to other teams. Currently all contracts with the Pakistani players stand suspended immaterial of the team they belong to.


The Rajasthan Royal Squad:
Graeme Smith, Niraj Patel, Justin Langer, Swapnil Asnodkar, Mohammad Kaif, Shane Watson, Tyron Henderson, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Mahesh Rawat (wk), Shane Warne, Shaun Tait, Morne Morkel, Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.

Playing XI that i assume will be used for the matches:
1 Graeme Smith/ Niraj Patel/ Justin Langer, 2 Swapnil Asnodkar, 3 Mohammad Kaif, 4 Shane Watson/ Tyron Henderson/ Dimitri Mascarenhas, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Mahesh Rawat (wk),8 Shane Warne, 9 Shaun Tait/ Morne Morkel, 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel.

Do Join me later for more previews and Team news following the IPl Season 2 starting in South Africa on April 18 2009.

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IPL 2: Rajasthan Royals to play 2 practice maches against the Cobras

Some of the teams taking part in the IPL have started practice. Mumbai Indians wanting to make a mark this time had started practice in South Africa well before the news of IPL 2 being held in South Africa broke. Rajasthan Royals, the reigning champions will be looking for another dominating performance this season as they take on Bangalore Royal Challengers in the second game of the tournament. For full match Schedule visit: IPL 2: schedule

The Rajasthan Royals, winners of the inaugural IPL, will take on the Cobras, champions of South Africa's Pro20 series this season, in two Twenty20 matches ahead of the second season of the IPL. The two games are scheduled for April 11 and 12 and have been billed as the "Clash of Champions".


"We are delighted to be working with the Cobras at Newlands during our IPL tournament preparation. It's a great venue, and the "Clash of the Champions" over the Easter weekend will be an exciting contest," Manoj Badale, chairman and co-owner of Rajasthan, said. "It is the first time the Royals have played since winning the IPL tournament and it will be great to see the team back in action."Both teams have also agreed to work together on future cricketing and sponsorship opportunities to further sporting links between India and South Africa. In addition to the two matches, the partnership will also include player exchange to develop young talent. News Courtesy: CricInfo

Team Kolkatta Knight Riders start practice from April the 5th, Chennai Super Kings have started practice at their home base in Chennai and will be flying to South Africa in a short while. Captain MS Dhoni will first visit his hometown Ranchi in Jharkhand before he departs to South Africa. Rajasthan Royals can expect good prcatice as the Cobras have a strong line up including players in the likes of Gibbs, Duminy, Ontong and the rest. They play their practice match at capetown and will try to make it their base as run-up to this season which runs from April 18 to May 24. Capetown has already seen a large Indian Audience during the T20 world championship in 2008.

I'll be posting a number of blongs this pre-IPL-Season regarding players and how the teams line up. Do come back for more news, reviews and previews.






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IPL 2: Tournament kicks off April 18 in Cape Town, South Africa

Finally, The schedule of the IPL Season 2 is out and for everyone to see. All eight IPL franchises will play at least half their matches in Durban, Cape Town and Centurion, where they hope to have significant crowd support from the sizeable Indian-origin population, according to the official tournament schedule that was released on Friday night. The opening double-header in Cape Town on April 18 - Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals v Bangalore Royal Challengers - will feature at least nine South African players, including Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, in a calculated attempt to spark local interest in what is essentially an Indian domestic event.



According to the schedule, Cape Town hosts a chunk of the matches in the beginning of the tournament till April 26 when the action shifts to the Supersport Park and other venues. The matches in Durban, the main venue, run through the whole tournament from April 21 to May 20. The final is being held on May 24 in Johannesburg, which also hosts one of the semi-finals the day before

Kingsmead in Durban, which has a sizeable Indian-origin population, was allocated 16 matches, the highest among the eight venues, while Supersport Park in Centurion will host 12 games. The Wanderers and Newlands will stage eight matches each, while St George's Park in Port Elizabeth and Buffalo Park in East London were given seven and three matches respectively. Two matches each were handed to the Outsurance Oval in Bloemfontein and three to the De Beers Oval in Kimberley.

Schedule, Courtesy CricInfo:







Kings XI Punjab play 10 of their 14 matches, the maximum among the eight franchises, at the three venues in demand, followed by Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Bangalore Royal Challengers and Chennai Super Kings (9), Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians (8), and Delhi Daredevils (7).

The matches will be held at 12.30 pm and 4.30 pm local time (4.00pm and 8.00pm IST; 10.30am and 2.30pm GMT ).

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