Rajasthan Royals have had their share of troubles and cricket controversies that have made the rounds of the cricket new recently. Two of the Royals bowlers, pacers Kamran Khan and Amit Singh have both been reported for suspect bowling action. Shane Warne was embroiled in a beer drinking controversy (beer drinking controversy - http://www.cricket360.com/2148-shane-warne-and-the-beer-tempest-in-a-teacup.html), which was not so much controversy as media overreaction. However the Royals will have to put aside all extraneous considerations and concentrate fully on their cricket today as they take on the formidable Chennai Super Kings.

On the last occasion that they met, on 30 April, both teams were looking shaky; now however their confidence in their abilities has to have been restored with each winning most of their respective matches since then. At numbers 2 and 3 respectively, Chennai and Jaipur are looking confident and difficult to beat.

Chennai is definitely looking the better batting unit. Matthew Hayden has been playing splendidly, and missed his century by just a few runs in their last match against Kings XI Punjab. MS Dhoni is looking in fine form once again and Suresh Raina has proved over and over again that he is no teen prodigy but a player of repute now in international cricket. The trio has, among them scored 895 runs; the rest of the batting put together has managed 395.

For the Royals the batting isn’t as sound with Graeme Smith still looking jaded and Yusuf Pathan still looking the most consistent performer with his big hits and his fireworks. Naman Ojha though looks to be coming good with his 52 not out against Bangalore. The bowling that was coming together very nicely for the Royals may be negatively affected by the allegations of suspect bowling action with regard to two of their bowlers. What will also be a huge disappointment to skipper Shane Warne will be the no show of the other Shane; Shane Watson, who was to join the team earlier and who is now unable to do so because of injury.

Of the four times they went head to head, (three times in last year’s IPL) the Rajasthan Royals have won three times. Chennai will be looking to even out that particular score somewhat today.

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

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