Graeme Smith and Naman Ojha guide Rajasthan to victory in IPL

Openers Graeme Smith and Naman Ojha scored half-centuries while pace bowler Amit Singh took an impressive 3-9 on Tuesday to steer the Rajasthan Royals to a 78-run win over the Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League.

Smith top-scored with 77, hitting 12 boundaries and a six, while Ojha faced 51 balls and struck five boundaries and five sixes for his 68 runs as Rajasthan reached 211-4, scaling the 200-run mark for the first time in the 2009 IPL series.

Punjab managed 133-8 in reply.

Smith and Ojha batted solidly to put on 135 for the first wicket, often coming down the wicket to the Punjab opening bowlers, offspinner Ramesh Pawar and pace bowler Irfan Pathan. There was little swing as expected at Kingsmead and the seam bowlers in particular fell short on length.

Smith and Ojha capitalised, mainly on the leg side, with Sree Santh and Yusuf Abdulla both costing 44 runs without a wicket.

"For them to play the way they did and set the tone was fantastic," said Rajasthan captain Shane Warne said of his openers.

Rajasthan then kept up the pressure when it came to bowling, with Singh taking two wickets in the first over. The 27-year-old right-armer got the very first ball to lift sharply for Sunny Sohal to offer a nick behind to Warne in the slips.

Singh struck again with his last ball of the over when Karan Goel, on one, mis-hit a shorter delivery and was caught at square leg by Shane Harwood.

Siddharth Trivedi then bowled Simon Katich (10) with a full toss which was inside-edged into the stumps to leave Punjab on 25-3 in the fifth over.

Kumar Sangakkara, who was dropped on one run by Warne, made another 10 before he was stumped by Ojha off Yusuf Pathan. Ten runs later Mahela Jayawardene, who added nine runs, was caught by Trivedi in the deep off Shane Harwood in the eighth over.

A sixth wicket stand runs between Yuvraj Singh (48 off 37 balls) and Irfan Pathan (19 off 17 balls) made sure Punjab's score was respectable.

Warne, who took 2-38 in his three overs, broke up the partnership when he trapped Pathan in front in the 14th over. Warne got his second wicket when Piyush Chawla came down the wicket in search of a boundary, only to be caught by Ravindra Jadeja at long on for six.

Yuvraj was the last wicket, top-edging a delivery from Amit Singh to square leg where Harwood took the catch in the 19th over.

"We bowled badly," said Yuvraj. "We didn't stick to our plans and didn't get the breakthroughs. We bowled badly at the death and gave away too many runs."

[the article was orginally published at http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=940178&lang=eng_news]

Kings XI, KKR look to get IPL campaign on track

Thoroughly outplayed in their opening matches, Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab will lock horns on Tuesday hoping to haul their Indian Premier League campaign back on track.

Ravaged by injuries that have denied them the services of star players like Shaun Marsh, Brett Lee and S Sreesanth, the Yuvraj Singh-led Kings XI were handed a 10-wicket drubbing by Delhi Daredevils in their rain-truncated opening match on Sunday.

On the same night, Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders were beaten by eight wickets by last year's bottom-placed Hyderabad Deccan Chargers.

"I want this nightmare to end," said Shah Rukh after the thrashing.

Kolkata, it seemed, were yet to recover from the pre-tournament furore over captaincy, at the end of which Sourav Ganguly was replaced by New Zealand's Brendon McCullum at the helm.

McCullum couldn't have asked for a worse start to his stint but remained optimistic about the team bouncing back in the coming matches.

"It is a long tournament and we will bounce back," he insisted.

Kings XI, on the other hand, are trying to cope with the injury blows that have left them severely depleted.

Last season's highest scorer Marsh, along with tearaway pacer Lee, were out of contention even before the tournament and adding to their woes is the non-availability of all-rounder James Hopes, who is on national duty.

Sreesanth too has been left with the job of promoting the team from the sidelines as a back injury keeps him out of on-field action.

Against a balanced Delhi, Kings XI's batting struggled to hold up and bowling was such that Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir took just a little over four overs to get past a 54-run target that was set for six overs in the rain-shortened game.

The Mohali-based team's batting relies heavily on skipper Yuvraj and Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara, both of whom didn't contribute much in the lost match.

Yuvraj, however, remained hopeful of a turnaround.

"We are happy with the start, off course we can take some positive out of it and we have enough games coming up, so looking forward to that," he said.

[the article was originally published at http://www.hindustantimes.com/highpl/storypage.aspx?id=2e3cdbef-06d9-483f-a96a-301b13e8b282&category=Chunk-HT-UI-IPLSectionPage-TopStories]

Kings XI set 105 run target for Delhi Daredevils

Karan Goel scored a quickfire 38 as Kings XI Punjab made 104 for 7 wickets in 12 overs against Delhi Daredevils in the third match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Newlands.
Daniel Vettori picked up three for 15 in the match which was shortened to 12 overs per team due to wet field because of rains and drizzle since morning.

Game has now stopped due to rain again.

IPL ideal for World T20 preparation: Yuvraj Singh

Mumbai : Flamboyant Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh sees the second edition of the Indian Premier League in South Africa as the perfect dress rehearsal for cricket playing nations ahead of the World Twenty20 Championship in England in June.

"The IPL has come at the right time to help all (countries) to prepare for the T20 World Cup. It will give all the players lot of practice as each team will play at least 14 matches.

It's going to get better, the World T20 Cup (because of IPL)," the left-hander told reporters here today.

Yuvraj, who is the captain of Kings XI Punjab, co-owned by Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, was here along with the latter to announce Emirates association with the Mohali-based outfit as its official team sponsor.

Yuvraj, who did not have a successful Test series in New Zealand which India won 1-0 to rewrite history in Kiwi soil after 41 years, said the Kings XI would play similar to what they dished out last year en route the semi-finals in the first edition of the cash-rich T20 league.

"We won 8-10 games (actually ten out of 14 before losing to Chennai Super Kings in the semi-finals on May 31,2008) last year. We will play in a similar fashion," he said.

He, however, refused to be drawn into a debate on the controversial multiple captaincy theory put forth by Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan.

[credit : http://sports.indiainfo.com/article/0904112026_sport_yuvraj/336559.html]

Yuvraj Singh : IPL ideal for Cup preparations

Mumbai: Yuvraj Singh said on Saturday that the Indian Premier League (IPL), starting on April 18, would be the ideal preparation for the World Twenty20 to be held in England in June.

“The IPL has come at the right time, before the world championships. Each team has 14 games before the semi-finals and final, and it would be a good practice for everybody,” Yuvraj, captain of Kings XI Punjab, said at a press conference here.

He, however, refused to be drawn into a debate on the controversial multiple captaincy theory put forth by Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan.

“No comments. I do not want to say anything about other teams,” Yuvraj said

He also refused to single out any side as the Kings XI’s main rivals, saying all eight teams were good. “I don’t want to single out any team. There are lot of good teams,” he said.

Yuvraj felt the performance of fast bowlers would be a key factor in the coming IPL as the wickets in South Africa are faster than the Indian pitches where the first edition was played.

“The conditions will be different this year. The wickets will be fast and fast bowling will be important and their performance would be crucial,” he said.

Kings XI Punjab owner Preity Zinta said the absence of Australian speedster Brett Lee, who is set to miss most part of the league due to national commitments, would not be felt.

“We have Burt Cockley, a young Australian who can bowl at 140 kmph. He will be our mainstay in the fast bowling department. We have a lot of aces up our sleeves,” the Bollywood actress said.

“Lee is available (for part of the tournament). We have to go there and see what is the best balance,” he said.

Yuvraj also revealed that he went through an emotional turmoil during the first one-day International on the recent tour of New Zealand.

The Punjab player said that the news of the terrorists’ attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers on March 3 in Lahore while he was at the crease in Napier, had left him a shaken man.

“I was batting with Mahendra Singh Dhoni when one of our teammates passed on the news. My hands started shaking and I couldn’t bat,” Yuvraj said.

Yuvraj was run out for two in that match. The impact of the terror attack, however, would remain a conjecture.

The Kings XI Punjab captain would meet the Lankan cricketers for the first time after the attack when he flies to South Africa to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) next week. Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, two of the players who were wounded in the attack, are the Yuvraj’s teammates in the Mohali-based side.

“I had spoken to Sangakkara and Mahela (Jayawardene) after the match. Thankfully, they were safe. I am looking forward to playing with them,” the middle order batsman said.

[credit : http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090412/jsp/sports/story_10809302.jsp]