Shane Warne’s craftiness when bowling as well as captaining his IPL team the Rajasthan Riders has been the chief asset of this team, but today several things will need to come together for them to turn in a winning performance that is good enough to take them to the semi finals. As of now their run rate is lower than the other contenders for a semi final berth so if it come down to two teams having the same number of points on the table, it will be the team with the better run rate that will make it to the semis.

For Rajasthan it is crucial that Graeme Smith perform today, because a lot will depend on his firing at the top of the score board. Yusuf Pathan, whom the team has repeatedly turned to in order to pull a win out of an unlikely situation, is another key to the Royals making it today. Abhishek Raut, Naman Ojha and Ravindra Jadeja will also have to perform to potential if they are to pull off a good win today.

What would be worrying Warne however is the fact that Brendon McCullum seems to have struck belated form now, as displayed in the KKR versus CSK match on Monday when he was top scorer of the match with his 81 runs that came off just 48 balls. For their part, KKR would certainly enjoy ending their campaign in the DLF IPL 2009 on a winning note, so they are not likely to be any kind of push over today.  

There are many in the KKR camp who have a point to prove to people in international cricket: Sourav Ganguly needs to prove that there is cricket left in aging master still, McCullum has to justify his appellation as a T20 specialist as well as justify his appointment as skipper of a Kolkata team.  Brad Hodge will also be looking to validate his presence in the team and to finish with a flourish. They will, in effect be looking to pull anther rabbit out of the metaphoric hat today.

The Rajasthan Royals will have their work cut out for them: Shane Warne will delve into his bag of tricks to pull off a win and an emphatic win it will have to be today. He will need support from his bowlers and the contribution of the likes of Munaf Patel will be crucial.

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

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