Venue and Conditions:
Friday’s IPL action comes from Ahmedabad where the Rajasthan Royals take on the Deccan Chargers. This is only the third IPL fixture to be played at this stadium and the wicket has proved to be a difficult one on which to get the ball away. It’s a slow track, arguably the slowest in the IPL and the Deccan batsmen may find the adjustment difficult.
Team News:
The Royals lost their first three matches and were dealt a double injury blow when the South African skipper Graeme Smith and Hampshire’s Dimitri Mascarenhas were ruled out for the duration after their second contest. Later, they have just completed back to back wins over the Knight Riders and the Kings XI to kick start their tournament. The squad has been trimmed to 19 players which has seen Damien Martyn head home but there is talk of Shane Watson arriving in the not to distant future which would provide another boost to their chances.
The Deccan Chargers have reeled off successive wins against Super Kings, Kings XI and the Daredevils after an opening day loss to the Knight Riders. The evergreen Adam Gilchrist is doing a sterling job and he is being ably assisted by the experienced duo of Andrew Symonds and Herschelle Gibbs both of whom seem to be playing their way back into form.
Gilchrist, Symonds, Gibbs and Rohit Sharma have all been amongst the runs at times so far but only Gilchrist with a top score of 54 and Symonds with 53 have made a half century. With the ball, Chaminda Vaas has eight wickets and an economy rate a shade over 6 per over whilst Symonds and Sharma have kept things pretty tight with economy rates of just over 6.5. Symonds produced a man of the match performance in the recent game against Delhi scoring a quick fire 35 and recording bowling figures of 3 for 21 with an exceptional economy rate of just 5.25.
For the Royals, Yusuf Pathan is the danger man with the bat and is also playing his part with the ball. Adam Voges looks a very useful acquisition with 82 runs in his two innings so far.
Yorkshire’s Michael Lumb is responding well to his first ball dismissal against Kolkata with a solid 41 against Punjab. Yusaf Pathan is a monster hitter but since smashing an explosive century in the opening game he has struggled to find the middle of the bat. The wicket keeper Naman Ojha comes in high up the order but is another who has been out of sorts and is proving expensive to follow. Faiz Fazal has looked the part in his two innings.
This will be the Royals third match at Ahmedabad, they were thrashed by the Daredevils here but were comfortable winners over the Knight Riders. Both games were relatively low scoring with the Royals 168/7 being the highest total posted so far.
The Verdict:
Gilchrist v Warne has to be worth a watch if Deccan can deal with Yusuf Pathan they ought to have too much for the Royals. Check out the head to head between the two powerhouses – Andrew Symonds against Yusaf Pathan.
Trivia:
The average first innings score in the two innings played in this stadium is 155 – 10 runs less than the IPL3 average which up to and including game 19 stood at 165.7.
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