The Rajasthan Royals, having won their last match against the Delhi Daredevils who were undefeated in their previous matches, would be feeling buoyant and confident today. On the other hand the Chennai Super Kings would be unable to fathom why, in spite of having some class acts of international cricket in their side, they have been unable to win any but the one match against the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Chennai have some real firepower in their ranks and Matthew Hayden has fired well for his team repeatedly. What may be a major worry for the team and its skipper as well is the fact that M S Dhoni has not been among the runs and his personal form is iffy at this time. The bowling as well, has not come together in a way that is encouraging though there have be flashes from old warhorse Muttiah Muralitharan. Chennai will be going all out to win today, since if they don’t they will have lost 5 out of 6 T20 matches and they will then grace the bottom of the points table, dislodging even the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

According to cricket news reports, the Jaipur team may finally try out Australian all-rounder, 33-year-old Lee Carseldine who may perhaps replace Shane Watson whose absence is really telling on the team according to skipper Shane Warne, who misses his all round abilities. “He’s a terrific all-rounder, can bat for long, has an impressive strike rate. He can also be a good left arm medium pacer and can add a lot of value to the middle-order,’’ says Warne about Carseldine. Last year’s stellar performers Sohail Tanvir and Shane Watson are really being missed by the team.

Positives for the Rajasthan team are Graeme Smith touching form with his unbeaten 44 in the last match where he batted the entire innings and even more so, Yusuf Pathan who was man of the match against the Delhi Daredevils when he bludgeoned 62 not out off just 30 balls that made the win for the Rajasthan Royals very comfortable in the end.

Today will be an interesting match to see which one of the two past masters, who are now retired from international cricket and who were part of a world beating Australian team when they were playing, will blink when they take on each other at the Centurion today!

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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