Royals take on depleted Delhi

Match facts

Saturday, April 6, 2013
Start time 1600 (1030 GMT)

Rahul Dravid will play his first match in almost A YEAR

 

 

 

 

 

The first couple of matches are always about getting the ball rolling in a long tournament where the teams go through cycles of form and they are important in helping team management take an uncomplicated view. Rajasthan Royals open their season with a clean slate when they take on a depleted home side, Delhi Daredevils, who had an insipid outing in Kolkata in the first match of the tournament.

Royals are without one man who is likely to be a constant in their equation this season – Shane Watson, who is not available for this match – and that opens up a vital spot for them to test one of their imports. In-form Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Perera is almost certain in the XI but the choice of other three could depend on the surface laid out in Delhi. The other interesting bit for Royals would be how their captain-cum-coach Rahul Dravid copes with his first taste of competitive cricket in almost a year. The longer he takes to find his groove, the more muddled the strategies would get.

Daredevils are still handicapped by the absence of two of their impact players – Virender Sehwag, who is out with back spasms, and Morne Morkel, who is playing domestic Twenty20 in South Africa. But this time, they are playing at home, against a not-so-daunting opponent they have beaten every time at home and the team would hope to put up a better batting performance to get a move on.

 

 

Players to watch

Kusal Perera is a rising star in Sri Lankan cricket and Royals have been lucky to fetch his services for just US$20,000. A good season here and that price, likely, is expected to multiply a few times over. Perera is a powerful player who loves to play lofted shots on either side of the wicket. He has often been compared to Sanath Jayasuriya, who, 17 years ago, ended the career of another Delhi bowler on this ground.

David Warner had a quiet start to the tournament by his standards, but in the absence of Sehwag, his form is crucial for Daredevils to do well as the middle order appeared a bit undercooked in the last game. Warner has scored a century and two fifties on his home ground.

 

Stats and trivia

• Daredevils have beaten Royals six times in the ten matches they have played against each other. They have lost just once in the last six matches
• In Brad Hodge and Owais Shah, Royals have two of the top five run-scorers in Twenty20s
• Rahul Dravid has scored 1703 IPL runs, which is the most among players from both sides

 

Quotes 

“I like Unmukt Chand a lot. He comes to my room often and asks me a lot of questions. We discuss how to deal with pressure situations and I tell him about my discussions with the Australian psychologist Mike Lloyd.”
David Warner is impressed with his opening partner

“The game against Delhi last year was disappointing as we lost by just one run. We have learnt from our past mistakes and are ready to start from scratch.”
Rajasthan Royals Ajinkya Rahane

Injured Dhawan in doubt for opening IPL games

 

 

Shikhar Dhawan is certain to miss the opening game of Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 5

Shikhar Dhawan is likely to miss at least the opening match for Sunrisers Hyderabad, as he recovers from his hand injury sustained while fielding during the recent Mohali Test against Australia. Dhawan fractured his left hand and was ruled out for six weeks, keeping him out of the fourth Test in Delhi. Sunrisers play their first game on April 5 against Pune Warriors.

“Shikhar Dhawan at this stage will not be available for the first game. We are obviously working closely with the BCCI and the medical team with regard to his progress,” Sunrisers coach Tom Moody said before the team’s first official training session in Hyderabad.

“We are hoping that within a couple of weeks he will be available to join the team.”

Dhawan had made history in Mohali, his 187 being the fastest by a debutant in Tests. His knock opened India’s chances for pushing for a win in a high-scoring game, despite the opening day being washed out. He hurt his hand on the fourth day of the Test but wasn’t required to bat during the second innings.

Dhawan was the leading run-scorer for Deccan Chargers – as it was previously known before the ownership changed – in the 2012 season, scoring 569 runs with five fifties. He was one of the few positives in what was a forgettable campaign for the team, which finished second from last.

Finch to replace Clarke for Pune Warriors

Aaron Finch will be joining his third IPL franchise after playing for Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils

Aaron Finch will replace Michael Clarke in the Pune Warriors squad for the sixth IPL season after Clarke was ruled out of the entire season with a back injury. Finch, another top-order batsman, tweeted the development and is expected to leave for India on Saturday.

 

Finch will be joining his third IPL franchise after playing for Rajasthan Royals in 2010 and Delhi Daredevils in 2011 and 2012. He was released by Delhi in November 2012 and went unsold in the auction on February 3 at a base price of $200,000.

He represents Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League and averaged 66.40 in eight matches last season, scoring 332 runs with a highest score of 111 not out. However, he scored only 4, 7 and 1 for Australia in the three T20Is in January against Sri Lanka and West Indies.

Overall, he has scored 1699 runs in 58 domestic T20 matches at 36.14 with a strike-rate of 130.49.

The Warriors will be captained by Angelo Mathews this season.

 

Watson admits batting form a concern

Shane Watson endured a lean series in India by his standards     Shane Watson has conceded that he risks being dropped unless he can  find a way to start scoring big runs again, after yet another disappointing series with the bat. Watson, who was the acting captain in the last Test in Delhi, managed only 99 runs at 16.50 during the Indian tour. This continued a long, unproductive batting stretch, where in the past two years he has made 627 Test runs at 24.11, and has not posted a century.

His lack of runs was even more noticeable during this series because he had chosen not to bowl to stay fit and string together as much cricket as possible after an injury-plagued couple of seasons. Before the series, the captain, Michael Clarke, said that as a specialist batsman, Watson would face competition from a larger pool of players for a place in the team, as compared to when he plays as an all-rounder.

“There is no doubt that I need to score runs,” Watson said at the end of the Indian tour. “As a batsman who’s batting in the top four at the moment, I need to score runs. Unfortunately, during this series I’ve scored nowhere near the [amount of] runs that I’ve wanted to, to be able to give to the team’s performance.

“There’s no doubt cricket’s a performance-based game. If I’m not scoring runs or taking wickets, then you can’t expect to be picked. There are no secrets about it. You can’t hide behind anything, apart from your performance. In this series I’ve not performed anywhere near where I’ve wanted to. I’m looking forward to being able to continue to play and hopefully get some continuity with my game over the next few months, and be in some good touch when the selectors announce the Ashes squad.”

Watson’s case for being part of the XI for the first Ashes Test will be strengthened by the fact that he is expected to be bowling again by then, and his medium-pace has a habit of providing breakthroughs at important times for the Australians. But bowling has also generally been responsible for the many injuries that have prevented him from playing even half the amount of Tests he could have.

He missed all the 2011-12 home summer of Tests due to calf and hamstring problems, and played only half of Australia’s home Tests in 2012-13, again due to a calf injury. However, Watson intends to slowly start building up his bowling workload during the second half of the IPL, and hopes to be in a place to bowl unrestricted during the Ashes, which starts in July.

“One thing I have realised is how much I do miss bowling, and it has been a plan over the last two or three months to get my body to a place where I can get back into bowling again, and hopefully hold together for the cricket we have coming up,” Watson said. “There is no doubt coming here as a specialist batsman has not worked out anywhere near where I wanted it to.

“It didn’t work in that regard, but in the end I am an all-rounder, I love being an all-rounder. At times it has been hard not to bowl knowing what I can give to the game. I know I won’t always be able to score runs or take wickets, but if I’m an all-rounder, I’ve got more [of a] chance to give to the team’s performance and success. I have to stay on top of my body so that I can play the amount of cricket I want to.”