Bowling: Bangalore Royal Challengers

Batting: Bangalore Royal Challengers Innings

Bowling: Kings XI Punjab

In DLF-IPL, Kings XI take on already shattered Royal Challengers. The Royal Challengers internal issues have also come up and have worsen the scenario for them.This has added more problems and now it looks that even if they win today,they are almost out of the league.Mallaya believes that it was a wrong choice of team by Dravid that has lead to all this debacle. On the other hand, Kings XI are high on confidence and today it seems to be a cake walk for them. But you can not guarantee anything in cricket so we have to wait and watch.

King’s XI Punjab (probables): 1 Shaun Marsh, 2 James Hopes, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Yuvraj Singh (capt), 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Irfan Pathan, 7 Piyush Chawla, 8 Uday Kaul (wk), 9 Sreesanth, 10 VRV Singh, 11 Gagandeep Singh.

Bangalore Royal Challengers (probables): 1 J Arunkumar, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Mark Boucher (wk), 4 Cameron White, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Rahul Dravid (capt), 7 Praveen Kumar, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Vinay Kumar.

Date – May 12, 2008 34th Match
Venue – Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali
20:00 India time.

Keep checking iplcricketlive .com for more information about the match, match videos, match score cards and an analysis of each team’s performance.

The big fat IPL format has made the dull months of April and May boom time in Calcutta. With the shortest form of cricket gaining in popularity, cash tills are ringing all over — hotels, malls, restaurants and retail stores.

“Traditionally, April-May are lean months for the hospitality industry. Last year, there was 85 per cent room occupancy around this time, but this year we are full up,” said a spokesperson for ITC Sonar Calcutta.

With the teams and celebrity guests pushing up the occupancy rates, the average room rate has gone up at the Bypass hotel, the spokesperson added.

The Park, hosting the commentators, has also witnessed a 15 to 20 per cent rise in occupancy in the past month and is expecting to improve on the performance once the Mohali team checks in later this month.

The benefits of excitement around T20 matches have trickled down below the star hotels.

If Sanjeev Bhargava of Trade Links is busy meeting the demand for luxury cars — he has supplied Shah Rukh Khan’s Mercedes — the New Market hawker selling Kolkata Knight Riders T-shirts is finding it difficult to meet the demand. “The T-shirts are selling like hot cakes… People are buying them before going to Eden Gardens,” said the middle-aged man selling the black-and-gold T-shirts at anything between Rs 75 and Rs 150.

The expensive variants — Reebok’s KKR jerseys at Rs 1,699 — are also flying off the shelves. “Our biggest challenge now is to meet the demand. We are taking bookings in advance. Shah Rukh’s No. 12 jersey is the biggest sell-out,” says Reebok India managing director Subhinder Singh Prem.

With the home team bouncing back with two consecutive wins, the next leg of the IPL promises to be more exciting. To cash in on the craze, malls have put up giant screens and restaurants are coming up with attractive offers.

“At the lounge, we definitely see an upsurge the days the Calcutta team is playing. It is like a festival and the footfall increases by 35 per cent,” said Ashim Mewar, the restaurant director of Red Kitchen and Lounge.
Source: telegraphindia.com

MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League organisers have shifted the June 1 final from the originally scheduled Wankhede Stadium in South Mumbai to the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai for a variety of reasons, Cricket Board sources said today.

“The final has been shifted and will now be held at D Y Patil Stadium. One of the main reasons is that the TV production crew is not happy with the makeshift arrangements at the Wankhede Stadium which has already been taken up for renovation and there is space constraint for keeping their equipment,” the sources said.

The arrangements for the TV production crew includes temporary location of their vast paraphernalia adjacent to the makeshift restaurant located just behind the Garware Stadium stands, the sources added.

Another reason is that the D Y Patil Stadium can hold 55,000 spectators as compared to 40,000 by Wankhede, which increases the revenue of the home team owners – Reliance Industries.

But the decision has not yet been communicated to the franchise owners of Mumbai Indians, the home team, by the IPL authorities who make the final call though the team owners have a say on the matter, said a spokesperson of the franchisee.

“There have been talks about one of the semifinals or the final being shifted to D Y Patil, but we have not heard anything officially on the matter,” he said.

Source :economictimes.indiatimes.com

Dravid says:“Success in T20 may not automatically translate into success in the four-day Ranji or Tests”

“T20 is unique and lot of young Indian players are excelling in this format. Whether they can take this confidence to the next level is debatable. It’s not going to be easy and the skills with which you achieve success in T20 may not help you give you success in Ranji and Tests”