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Rajasthan Royals v Deccan Chargers, IPL, Jaipur

Deccan look to make fresh start

Kanishkaa Balachandran

May 8, 2008

Match facts

Friday, May 9, 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

Adam Gilchrist taking on Shane Warne will be the contest to watch out for (File photo) © Getty Images

The Big Picture

The last time these teams met, Shane Warne smashed 16 off three balls in the last over to swing an unlikely victory for Rajasthan. Their fortunes have been contrasting since then; Rajasthan had a run of four straight wins before losing to Mumbai on Wednesday while star-studded Deccan have been patchy with a couple of wins among the losses.

Deccan have the edge coming into this match following their win over Chennai on Tuesday and need a few more if they are to make the top four. Rajasthan, despite their strong position will no doubt be jolted after being rolled over for 103 - a tournament low by a side batting first - by Mumbai, inside just 17 overs, before losing by seven wickets. But this time they play at home, where they are yet to lose a game, and they will want that trend to continue and hence reclaim their position at the top of the table.

Tournament position

Deccan Chargers P7, W2, L5, NRR -0.011
Rajasthan Royals P7, W5, L2, NRR +0.436

IPL form (last five matches)

Deccan Chargers LWLLW
Rajasthan Royals WWWWL

Watch out for ...

Adam Gilchrist v Warne. Both retired legends have shown no signs of rust and have been the pillars of their team's victories so far.

Swapnil Asnodkar. The pint-sized opener, similar in style to Sri Lanka's Romesh Kaluwitharana, has 131 runs from three games and has established himself as Rajasthan's trump at the top of the order.

Yusuf Pathan and Shahid Afridi. Both are known to biff the ball around and are handy spin options as well.

Team news

Deccan will wait on VVS Laxman, who was unfit for the previous game with a hand injury. Otherwise, they will probably retain their winning combination.

Deccan (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt/wk), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Scott Styris, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Shahid Afridi, 6 Venugopal Rao, 7 Sanjay Bangar, 8 Arjun Yadav, 9 RP Singh, 10 P Vijaykumar, 11 Pragyan Ojha

Rajasthan have an embarrassment of riches as far as overseas players are concerned. Younis Khan is yet to get a game, but none of their overseas recruits are in danger of losing their places to fit him in.

Rajasthan Royals (probable) 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Swapnil Asnodkar, 3 Yusuf Pathan, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Mahesh Rawat, 8 Shane Warne, 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel

Stats and trivia

Shane Watson is the leading run-scorer (208) and wicket-taker (9), for Rajasthan.

Yusuf Pathan's strike-rate in Twenty20 is a massive 184.28, in 12 games.

Shahid Afridi has aggregated a paltry 46 in six games. Out of that, 40 have come in boundaries alone. Clearly, he's not a big fan of singles.

Quotes

"The points table is of no relevance to us. I'm not aware and not going to encourage the guys to inspect it. We're just going to improve our cricket and try and take it up to another level."
Adam Gilchrist of the Deccan Chargers wants his troops to approach every game as their first, irrespective of the team's position.

"Mascarenhas will definitely be considered. He is the best finisher in the world."
Warne lets on his views on Dimitri Mascarenhas

Kanishkaa Balachandran is a staff writer at Cricinfo