NEW DELHI: At last, Indian advertising has found a quick-fix for upturning a downturn. Call it manna from the Indian Premier League (IPL), the most happening T20 event in cricket-crazy India. The tournament is tipped to become the best brand-building exercise for launching products in a hurry.

So far, the match ratings (upward of 5 on an average, according to TAM) have been superlative. “Not even World Cup T20 could build such a huge campaign in such a short time. It allows advertisers to get more value for money,” says Leo Burnett India national creative director KV Sridhar. “IPL has given one more platform for launch of products and brand building.”

Take the case of Godrej, for instance. The company invested around Rs 18 crore in the tourney, and now expects an annual growth of over 20%. Godrej Appliances V-P (sales and marketing) Kamal Nandi couldn’t agree more. “It is absolutely true that IPL is a good platform for building brands in a short period of time. We could fathom the excitement associated with the sport and knew that it would be a good substitute for soaps in prime-time slots.”

Some feel that IPL has changed the way cricket was played. “IPL has been a game-changing cricket format. In many ways, it’s like how KBC changed the game on soaps. Nobody expected IPL to be such a success. It’s a great advertising opportunity because it derisks brand investments. Viewer interest is sustained till the end of the tournament versus viewers losing interest once India is knocked out of the tournament,” points out JWT senior V-P & area director-Delhi Rohit Ohri.

Some believe IPL to be a classic case of brilliant merchandising and media management, thanks to the cash-rich BCCI backing it.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com

In the 19th match Of DLF – IPL, Kings XI defeated Deccan Chargers convincingly by 7 wickets. Chasing the target of 165, Kings XI started well and scored 41 runs in 6 overs for the first wicket partnership. Sarwan was the one to get out and that too very unfortunately as the straight drive touched the hands of Bangar and cliped the bails off. Kumara Sangakkara was the next to go  for mere 3 runs and the score was 45/2 in 6.5 overs. Yuvraj Singh came to the center and played awesome shots. He just scored 14 runs before being dismissed by Zoysa. Even when the wickets were falling on the other hand, one man was holding the innings together. He was Shaun Marsh who scored 84 runs. Mahela Jaywardene also played a responsible innings and played some of his trademark shots in covers. Both these players had a very good partnership and it was the batting of this duo which took the match from Deccan Chargers.

Scorecard – Deccan Chargers vs Kings XI Punjab – 19th Match

In the 19th match of DLF – IPL Deccan Chargers took Kings XI at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. Kings XI won the toss and decided to filed first.Laxman was at his very best and played some elegant shots. But Gilly (Gilchrist) could not capitalise on the start and was out for only 6. Then the next to go was the very explosive batsman Gibbs for only 7. Deccan Chargers kept loosing wickets on the other end but Laxman played a captain’s knock of 48 before being dismissed by Chawla. The middle order failed miserably with Afridi, Rao, Zoysa and Bangar all back to pavilion when the team score was 98. But Rohit Sharma was the man who again played the prestige saving innings for Deccan Chargers. He scored 76 runs in 42 balls.He played the shots with much elegance and totally entertained the crowd. It was his heroic efforts which took the score to 164  in 20 overs. 17 runs were scored in the 19th over of the match.

Scorecard – Deccan Chargers vs Kings XI Punjab – 19th Match

In the 19th match of DLF – IPL, Kings XI Punjab take on Deccan Chargers. Both the teams are high on confidence after winning the last match. Now both want to maintain the winning streak and thus we expect it to be a thriller of a match.

Deccan Chargers (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 VVS Laxman (capt), 3 Herschelle Gibbs, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Shahid Afridi, 6 Sanjay Bangar, 7 Arjun Yadav, 8 Nuwan Zoysa, 9 Pragyan Ojha, 10 RP Singh, 11 D Kalyankrishna.

Kings XI Punjab (probable) 1 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 2 James Hopes, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Yuvraj Singh (capt), 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Tanmay Srivastava, 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 Ajitesh Argal, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Sreesanth, 11 VRV Singh.

Date – May 1, 2008 – 19th Match
Venue – Rajiv Gandhi Int. Stadium, Hyderabad
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.

In the 18 th match of DLF – IPL Rajasthan Royals created yet another upset by defeating one of the strongest team of the league ie Kolkata Knight Riders. Chasing the target of 197, Knight Riders lost Salman Butt very early and then Ajit Agarkar also perished after playing some good shots. The whole responsibility was on the shoulders of Captain – Saurav Ganguly who played a good innings of 51. But Rajasthan Royals just striked at right moments and got rid of Ganguly when he was looking very dangerous, soon L.R. Shukla was also run out and it looked all like a real difficult task for the Knight Riders. Hussey on the other end was playing a brilliant innings but his efforts went to vain as no other Knight Rider Batsmen was able to cope up with the increasing run rate. They needed 61 runs in last 4 overs and thus the batsmen felt to the pressure and lost the wickets. In the end it was an emphatic win of Rajasthan Royals by 45 runs.

Now Kolkata Knight Riders have lost 3 in a row and Rajasthan Royals have won 4 in a row.

Scorecard – Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders – 18th Match