Delhi Daredevils IPL season 2, South Africa

Delhi Daredevils the team representing Delhi, the capital of India is led by Virender Sehwag and is owned by GMR group who acquired the rights for the Delhi franchise for $84 million. It has power hitters like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, and A B de Villars in their lineup with great support from bowlers like Glen McGrath, Yo Mahesh, Daniel Vettori and Farveez Mahroof. Delhi Daredevils was among the top four teams in the last Indian premier League.

Former India speedster, and manager of Delhi Daredevils, T A Sekar, feels his team is one of the most balanced ones in the IPL-2 having a mix of hard-hitting batsmen, good all-rounder’s and steady bowlers, so there is a lot of flexibility and options.

While in IPL-2008, Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar himself said Delhi Daredevils’ openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have been prolific scorers in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and getting rid of the duo early would be crucial to win. Gambhir is the highest scorer of the tournament while Daredevils captain Sehwag is not was not far behind. Both were the most successful opening pair in the competition.

“Both Sehwag and Gambhir are dangerous players. They are the key batsmen who have made runs for Delhi Daredevils. They have given good start to the team and a lot of their batting has depended on how the openers have performed. So we need to take their wickets early,” Tendulkar said.

When Sehwag walks out with Gambhir, the audience, on television and at the venue, is assured of some creative batting as the openers invite each other to a pleasing competition; a competition that contributes towards making batting an interesting spectacle.

Sehwag and Gambhir should rank as the best opening pair in the world today, if not India’s greatest ever.

The team started the tournament well, winning 4 of their first 5 games. However, they were unable to sustain this and finished the round-robin portion of the tournament with a record of 7-6. Their performance was good enough to make the semi-finals, where they lost by 105 runs against the Rajasthan Royals. Royals, who had lost to the Daredevils in their first encounter, went on to win the title.

Changes in 2009:

One of their best players in 2008, Shikhar Dhawan has been transferred to Mumbai in place of Ashish Nehra. Mohammed Asif and Shoaib Malik being Pakistani players will not play in IPL 2. Collingwood, Owais Shah are the new faces in the team.

Strength – The top order has been firing. With Gambhir, Sehwag in great form they will look to post a big total if they bat first or chase any total with ease. Their bowling has been good. McGrath has been economical, Mahroof on target and Amit Mishra spot on. Other players have also shown sign of coming into form.

Weakness – The fielding has not been at its best in the last season of IPL. Sehwag took few gambles which have gone against them.

Opportunity – Sehwag needs to think well before executing his plans. Fielding should be improved before it actually hurts the team.

Threat – Failure of the top order with absences of Shekhar Dhawan Delhi Dare Devils major threat this season will be its middle order. Which rely heavily on fresh recruits of Paul Collingwood and Oasis Shah.

Owners - GMR group

Vice President - Amrit Mathur
Vice President - T. A. Sekhar
Selector - Adhishwar
Head Coach - Greg Shipperd
Assistant Head Coach - David Saker
Physiotherapist - Justin Steer
Brand Ambassador - Akshay Kumar

Players to watch: Sehwag, Vettori, Gambhir, Yo Mahesh and Mahroof, Paul Collingwood and Abraham de Villiers .

Royal Challenger "no more a test team"

Recently Vijay Mallya, the owner of the Royal Challenger franchisee said " one calls us a test team anymore". With likes of Kevin Pietersen, Robin Uthappa, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor in the squad now he believes that no one can call Royal challengers a test team anymore.

The composition of the Royal challenger squad is quite balance with a perfect combination of hitters like Kevin Pietersen, Robin Uthappa along with all-rounder like Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher with Rahul Dravid and company to follow.

In the last IPL what Bangalore Royal Challenger badly missed was the firepower in all their departments from batting, balling, field to leadership skills as Captain Rahul Dravid was not up to mark in leading the team with like of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jacques kallis and Mark Boucher not performing to their ability. The team failed miserably in the last IPL standing at 7^th position in the league with just four wins.

Was it due to the lack of power hitters or was it lack of leadership skills and team spirit or may be both that led to their failure in the last IPL?..

the cause still remains unknown. Whatever it may be Royal Challenger and Kevin Pietersen now has a bigger task ahead of them. To bring the team together and play as a unit just like what Shane Warne did for Rajasthan Royals?

Kevin Pietersen will have a huge responsibility on his shoulders in the upcoming season of IPL. He will have to lead from the front to revive the fortune his team in the current season of IPL to be held in South Africa. With the kind of talent he possesses and his attacking style of leadership may be proved to be quite handy in the situation. He may eventually turn out to be the right person for the job as trusted upon by Mr. Mallya and the entire city of Bangalore.

Whatever may be the outcome of the IPLT20’09. We hope to see an improved and more competitive Bangalore Royal Challengers in the upcoming IPLT20 in South Africa.

The fate of Hyderabad Deccan chargers

Deccan Charges regarded as one of the most powerful batting line up in the last season of IPL twenty20 and were considered as the front runner for the IPL cup last year. But as only fate can decide who would have thought such a star studied line up of player like Adam Gilichrist, Herschel Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, Shahid Afridi and V.V.S Laxman would failed miserably. Each and every batsman in the lineup is a match winner in its own right. They have shaken the cricketing world with what they have done on the field with bat in the past. There were some individual performances like 117 not out by Andrew Symonds against Rajasthan Royals in losing cause and Adam Gilichrist 109 not out against Mumbai Indians. But what Hyderabad team was badly missing was a collective effort in all the department of the game and leadership of V.V.S.Laxman was also not up to the mark, as he could not lead the team from the front and was criticized for his laid back attitude and traditional approach.

It not easy to figure out all the things that lead to the down fall of Deccan Chargers which resulted its finishing at the bottom of the table in last season of the IPL. But the real questions is can Deccan Chargers live up to the expectation in coming season of IPL under leadership of Adam Gilichrist and coach Darren Lehman.

As it is said it’s a new day and a new beginning. It’s time for a fresh start for the Deccan Chargers to set to put their best foot forward and make a strong bid for the Indian Premier League-2.

Coach Darren Lehman is not deterred by their last place finish in the inaugural edition of the IPL, and promises Deccan chargers will start this season fresh and with a new attitude that will take the tournament by storm this year. “The Chargers will be a completely different team this season with their focus on explosive batting and excellent fielding. He is confident for that Deccan Chargers are going to be one of the strongest sides this year,”

We too hope to see a fresh and fully charged Deccan Charger in the upcoming season of the IPL.
Deccan Charger begins their season against Kolkata Knight Riders on 19 April at Cape Town.

Can Rajasthan Royals recreate the magic?

Rajasthan Royals the winner of the inaugural IPL T20 tournament recreate the magic this time around too in the upcoming season of IPL to be held in South Africa this season starting 18 April 9, 2009.

Rajasthan Royals in the first season of IPL with least star players in their lineup were considered as underdog and least favorite to win the IPL. No one gave them a chance to win against the teams like Deccan Charger, Kolkata Knight Riders and many other star studded teams. But as destiny has its say Shane Warne and Rajasthan Royals had other plans with the beginning of the season they proved it to everybody that they are not they underdogs anymore and within few weeks they surprised everyone by lifting the cup. At the beginning of the tournament who would have thought Rajasthan Royals would win the IPL season 1. They showed everyone in the IPL that it’s a team game and it requires a team effort to win games rather than individual performances. Rajasthan Royals created history by lifting the first IPL Twenty20 tournament.

But the real questions is can they recreate the magic they created in IPL Twenty20 season1 held in India last year. They no longer are the underdogs in fact they start this seasons as one of the favorites. The real task start from here it’s now up to Shane Warne and his boys to repeat what they did in IPL Twenty20 season 1 but its won’t be easy in the absence of their star players like Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akamal who made their presence felt in the last season. Also Rajasthan Royal is not a hidden force any more their players like Yousuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadega are known to every team in the competition so they no longer will have the element of surprise anymore and the performance of local player in alien conditions like South Africa is still quite certain.

It will require a huge effort and team work for Rajasthan Royal and Shane Warne to recreate the magic they did in IPL Twenty20 in India last year.

IPL 2009 South Africa a seek preview

It’s been almost a year since cricketing world entered into a new phase of cricketing era which many believed will change the way the game is played . The kind of money on offer has never been their before with new franchise based model, Player been put to auction. It came with much uncertainity and many experts questioned its survival .It brought with it what people had never seen before the mixture of glitz, glamour and cricket. It might have been a heart break for a traditionalist but against the backdrop of a cricket crazy Indian sub continent, with glamour happily intertwined with the biggest cricketing talents from across the globe, there's little which went wrong with the tournament and the much awaited tournament started when the Chinnaswamy stadium hosted the cricket match between the Bangalore Royal Challengers and the Kolkata Knight Riders on 18 April, 2008.

On April 18, 2009 and after months of hype, excitement, controversy, politicisation and speculation the high-profile Indian Premier League will kick off its second edition in Cape Town, South Africa with the Mumbai Indians facing Chennai Super Kings, two heavy weights of the tournament. The first time these two teams met in the IPL 2008, the fireworks were provided by the likes of Hayden, Raina, Dhoni and Nayar. But with stars like Tendulkar (injured for most of season 1) and JP Duminy set to join the bandwagon the signs for a potential humdinger are quite obvious.

The IPL second season will a total of 263 players participating this year. Which are 73 more than the first edition? If we have a look at the revenue it’s been said that the second edition of IPL will be a even bigger hit than the first seasons but with several issues still to be resolved like logistics cost, gate pavements and profit sharing revenue models with the IPL and the franchises the revenue generation is still to be seen. The inaugural edition of the IPL was a grand success and it attracted contracted revenues in the range of Rs.8000 crore. This time around it has already attracted contract revenues to the tune of more than Rs 10,000 crore - around Rs. 2000 crore more than last year - thus clearly defying the recessionary trends across the globe. Likewise, the teams have increased their expenditure and have cast their web farther, in this year's IPL there are 80 overseas players compared to 66 in 2008 while there are 183 Indian players in place of 124 Indian players who played last year. All this would mean bigger sixes, crashing boundaries, flying middle stumps and thus more live music and more gyrating cheerleaders. All of which would definitely result in worldwide viewership in excess of 101 million viewers - the numbers who watched the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on television.

Cricket is one of the key elements of the Indian social system which binds the whole country together keep asides elements like caste, creed, culture, religion and traditional values.

This time around with terror striking at the heart of cricket the Mumbai attacks and the attack on the Sri Lankan players in Lahore, Pakistan has brought the whole survival of the game itself in doubt in the sub continent .Hence, we 100 crore Indians and more await, the cricketing world holds its breath, and wait for wonderful cricketing spectacle to begin.

Welcome Indian Premier League 2009!