Rajasthan Royals Vs Delhi Daredevills highlights

Rajasthan humbled after inept batting

A charged-up Bangalore Royal Challengers produced the sort of performance for which franchise owner Vijay Mallya splashed the big bucks to bundle out Rajasthan Royals to the second-lowest total in Twenty20 history. There may be plenty of fresh faces but it was the old hands, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, who were the stars in Bangalore's massive victory. Dravid was the most assured batsman on display, making a polished half-century, while Kumble took the most economic five-wicket haul in Twenty20s to clean up Rajasthan.

Rajasthan lost their last five wickets for 11 runs to slide to an embarrassing defeat. Such an abject end was in stark contrast to their start: Dimitri Mascarenhas scalping two big wickets in the very first over to rock Bangalore, before Shane Warne's bag of tricks kept them to what seemed a gettable 133.

The performance from Bangalore's bowlers was unidentifiable from the limp showing against a marauding Brendon McCullum in their season-opener last year. Rajasthan had a galaxy of savage hitters but they were stifled to such an extent that the entire innings had only two sixes and a solitary four.

Praveen Kumar revelled in conditions which assisted him, dislodging the openers Swapnil Asnodkar and Graeme Smith. The shot selection from Rajasthan was cringeworthy, none more so than Asnodkar's wild swing in the first over which ended up in Virat Kohli's hands at point to start the slide. Niraj Patel struggled to find any rhythm while Tyron Henderson was shackled by the short ball from Praveen and Dale Steyn.

Rajasthan were stuttering at 26 for 3 after seven overs, but it was still an even game. The match was transformed in the next over, when Henderson and Mascarenhas were dismissed off consecutive delivers in the eighth over. Henderson was tricked by a slower ball from Jesse Ryder, and Mascarenhas was run out when he refused to take no for an answer after calling Yusuf Pathan for a single.

Half the side was gone, and the run-rate was soaring into double digits. In short, Rajasthan's chase was up in smoke. Kumble was then brought into the attack and his double-strike that lured Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja into false shots extinguished any lingering hopes.

It had been so different when Mascarenhas, getting the ball to dart around, dispatched the New Zealand pair of Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor with his first three balls. Bangalore were gasping at 17 for 3 after five overs.

Kevin Pietersen, charged by Mallya with the duty of turning around Bangalore's form, was rarely troubled during his stay and, in Dravid's company, set about reviving Bangalore. They had collected an unfussy 35 runs, aided by a lightning outfield, before Pietersen mistimed a pull to a diving Niraj at midwicket.

Dravid, in the familiar role of repairing top-order collapses, calmly picked up the singles to keep the score ticking. He needed the rest to play around him, but they were bamboozled by Warne's variations. Kohli was beaten and bowled by one that drifted and dipped, while B Akhil had no reply to a classic ripping legspinner.

Dravid remained his composed self, playing a mix of orthodox and inventive strokes, to lift Bangalore. His trademark on-drive and favoured inside-out lofted drives were on view but he also mixed in some cheeky paddle-sweeps. Dravid was dismissed in the final over, foxed by a change of pace from Munaf Patel, but his 48-ball 66 had given his side's bowlers a total to defend.

The game ended in humiliation for Rajasthan, but as Warne pointed out, they started out their previous campaign with a similarly disastrous game, before scripting the fairytale run to the title.

We were 'saddled' with Warne during IPL: Team Jaipur

New Delhi: Shane Warne's midas touch to minnows Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural IPL season may be a part of cricketing folklore but a new book reveals that the Australian spin legend was not the original choice for captaincy.

In their book 'IPL - an inside story', Alam Srinivas and T R Vivek say Jaipur owner Manoj Badale was "saddled with Warne" by chance in the first players' auction.

"In fact, Warne was never the over-riding original choice for the captaincy of the Jaipur team. Badale made it clear during an exclusive e-mail interview with us. 'Warne's views

could only be factored in after the first (players') auction and it is clear given the choice of Graeme Smith, that we did not build a team around Warne. But rather we picked a team based on individual roles and records".

The book gave an eyewitness version, by a franchise CEO, of the first auction where Jaipur just happened to buy Warne because no one else was buying him and the auction appeared to be in disaster.

"Warne's was the first name that came up as the 78 players' names were picked up. But no one was willing to pick him up at the reserve price. The auction was headed for disaster within the first few minutes.

"Since (Lalit) Modi has some interest in the Jaipur team he made an eye contact with Badale and Co. and nudged them to start bidding. Jaipur raised the placard... hoping other teams would jump into the fray... But no other team bid for Warne. Jaipur, it seemed, was saddle with Warne."

The authors also wrote that the legendary spinner was "not a strategist" but someone who can just goad people to give 100 per cent on the field.

They said Warne was an "insecure" person who feels "compelled to be liked by others" and is greedy for praise.

"...It is his ability to earn respect and love of his teammates. Warne can goad people to give 100 per cent on the field," the authors wrote.

"Excuse me, you would say, but isn't that what captaincy is all about? Isn't that how Ganguly and Ponting became great captains?... please read our words carefully. We never said that Warne is not a good leader. All we said was that he is not a strategist," they argued.

"Even his trait to extract the best out of his players, to make them die rather than fail only proves it," they added.

The book also attempted to justify their point with Warne's coach Terry Jenner's view on the bowler's behaviour. "He (Jenner) could see something else too, behind the bravado, that many people missed, and this was the insecurity that is so obvious in Warne today. He desperately wanted people to like him, to praise him, to say how good he was," the book quoted from Paul Barry's biography on Warne.

"Warne will only listen to people that he thinks can help him go somewhere. He shies away from control, authority or demands for rational behaviour. In its extreme form this syndrome is a mental illness called narcissistic personality disorder; Warne appears to be suffering from milder version," the book added from Warne's biography.

The authors observed: "Therefore, throughout the IPL, one witnessed this twin emotions in Warne's captaincy. He went out of his way to be loved by his teammates and rejected anything that did not fit his scheme of things."

Rajasthan to reward Most Valuable Player

Mumbai: Rajasthan Royals would reward the team's Most Valuable Player after each of its matches with a cash award of $1000 during the April 18-May 24 Indian Premier League through a sponsorship deal signed with HDFC Standard Life.

Under the deal, inked earlier this week, the insurance firm would be the associate sponsor as well as insurance partner of the IPL's defending champions owned by a consortium of international investors, including Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, a media release said on Wednesday.

The Most Valuable Player of a particular match will be chosen by captain-coach Shane Warne and other members of the franchise's coaching staff, the release said.

ICC should make window for IPL: Warne

Cape Town: International Cricket Council lacks 'common sense', otherwise it would have created a separate window for the Indian Premier League, said spin legend Shane Warne.

A vociferous advocate of a separate window for the Twenty20 event, Warne said no international matches should have been scheduled for the month of April to allow all players compete in the cash-rich league.

"If the ICC had any common sense, they would create a window for the IPL," Warne, who led the Rajasthan Royals to a fairytale victory in the inaugural edition of the league was quoted as saying by The Star.

Rajasthan Royals axe Kaif, seven others

New Delhi: The Rajasthan Royals have axed a big name from their squad even before the IPL got underway. Mohammad Kaif has been axed from the squad along with seven other players.

They will now fly back to India. Kaif was purchased for a hefty 675,000 US dollars at the auction last year but didn't have much of a role during the victorious campaign.

Kaif had played all the matches but could manage only 176 runs at an average of just 16. He didn't make a single half century, largely because he was shunted lower down the order. The 28 year old kaif has played 13 Tests and 125 one-dayers for India so far.

KKR IPL’s real show stealers as Rajasthan Royals falter despite win

If you thought winning is everything, think again! It certainly is not everything in the IPL. A recent study shows that while the Rajasthan Royals won the Tournament’s first season last year, It was the Kolkata Knight riders who truly won peoples’ hearts. Even as the eight IPL franchisees gear up for the tourney’s curtailed second season in South Africa, here are some pointers on perhaps the single most important factor concerning them- building and consolidating on a loyal fan base.

A recent survey conducted by sports marketing firm Dentsu Sport titled Building Sports Fandom- available exclusively with ET- analyses the things that helped IPL teams click with fans in the first season.

Conducted among 2009 (two thousand and nine) internet users in 30 cities, the survey also lists the most effective teams in IPL-2008 on parameters like presence of international stars, team name recall and uniform color recall.

Further, it suggests that there are short-term factors (Human Factor, Percieved Energy) and long-term ones (Performance, Engagement) that franchisees need to stress on, in order to succeed in attaining the elusive- a sustainable, loyal fan-base.

Not surprisingly, while Kolkata Knight Riders did exceedingly well in terms of human factor and engagement with co-owner SRK and a bevy of bollywood celebrities supporting the team, the Bangalore Royal Challengers were high on human factor but scored low on the performance and engagement fronts.

Says Rajesh Aggarwal, president, Dentsu advertising India; "For long-term gains in terms of creating sport fandom, franchisees need to ensure on-field performance and audience involvement during and post the tournament. The latter can be achieved through effective merchandising, creating fan clubs, cheering squads et al. Team owners can not afford to leave supporters stranded after the two month tournament and need to engage them for the whole year."

The study concluded that respondents regarded Rajasthan Royals as the most effective team on all performance related parameters- League Standing, Win % age, net run rate, performance of top five players. Kolkata Knight Riders scored in engagement factors like celebrity promoting a team, owner branding, uniform recall and TRPs while Chennai Superkings were regarded by respondents as the most balanced team, one that fared well on most counts including the presence of local/regional players, captain recall of team.

But the real surprise was Hyderabad franchise Deccan Chargers, which the respondents rated highest on the Perceived Energy parameter. A majority of the respondents found the franchise’s name the most energetic and vibrant. That it also advertised extensively before and during the first season, helped the side that finished at the bottom of the table, performance-wise.

Respondents found teams Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians as average on all counts although Mumbai fared better than Delhi on all other counts barring performance. Winners Rajasthan Royals were found lagging in human factor and engagement, what with the lack of any big-ticket players ahead of the first season and restrained advertising to get the franchise noticed and talked-about. This, a clear indicator of the fact that winning is not all that it takes to be a success in the IPL.