Defending champions of DLF IPL, Rajasthan Royals will begin their hunt against Bangalore Royal Challengers in the 2nd match of the day on Saturday, 18th April, 2009 at Cape Town from 16.30pm, 14.30GMT, 8.00 PM IST.

Rajasthan Royals will be without their start performer last year, all rounder Shane Watson and Sohail Tanveer but they are confidence enough under the captaincy of Shane Warne.

Bangalore Royal Challengers after finished seventh last year was gone over for face change from test team to T20 team with the inclusion of Kevin Pietersen and Jesse Ryder. Team i slooking balanced with Stayne, Ross Taylor and Mark Boucher.

Rajasthan Royals Challengers Team, Squad (Likely)

Graeme Smith, Swapnil Asnodkar, Shane Watson, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Tyron Henderson, Shane Warne (capt), Mahesh Rawat (wk), Munaf Patel, Sidharth Trivedi, Kamran Khan.

Bangalore Royal Challengers Team, Squad (Likely)

Jesse Ryder, Robin Uthappa, Kevin Pietersen, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Roelof van der Werwe, Sreevats Goswami (wk), Praveen Kumar, Anil Kumble, Dale Steyn, Pankaj Singh.

Mumbai Indians got winning start of the 2009 Indian Premier League – IPL, after they won the 1st match by 19 runs against last years runner-up Chennai Super Kings on Saturday, 18th April, 2009 at Cape Town. Mumbai Indians scored 165/7 while Chennai Super Kings made 146/7 in 20 overs.

Mumbai Indians after invited to bat first got a good start by Jayasuriya scored 26 runs and Tendulkar, scored only half century of the match with 59 not out off 49 balls with 7 fours but a 14 balls 35 runs by Nayar in the end took Mumbai Indians to a respected total. Gony took 2 wickets.

In reply, Chennai Super Kings reduced to 18/2 but 52 runs patnership between Hayden and Flintoff put back them in hunt but regular wickets kept them 19 runs short. Malinga bowled brilliantly with 3 wickets for just 15 runs while Harbhajan took 1 for 15 runs.

Match Summary:

Mumbai Indians - 165/7 in 20 overs.

Chennai Super Kings – 146/6 in 20 Overs.

Toss - Chennai Super Kings, who chose to field first.

Man of the Match – Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians)

Result – Mumbai Indians won by 19 runs.

Ganguly Out

Cape Town: It seems that Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan had his own way in the scheme of things as reports in a news channel claim that Sourav Ganguly has been slashed off the captaincy of the IPL team and the responsibility has been shouldered to Brendon McCullum instead.
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Reports claim that the changes will be only for the first match of KRR, that is, on 19th April against Deccan Chargers. Continue Reading »
Brendon McCullum captain of Kolkata Knight Riders Captain for season 2