The so called underdogs – Rajasthan Royals of the Indian Premier League have shocked all the critics as well as followers by the excellent cricket which they had played so far. In the 18th match of DLF – IPL today, Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bat first against the so called giants of DLF – IPL Knight Riders. Despite loosing Smith in the second over, Rajasthan Royals played intelligently and they approached the game with a define game plan. They continued scoring at a good run rate and scored a total of 196 runs in 20 overs. The highest scorer was Swapnil Asnodkar (60) for Rajasthan Royals. Yousaf Pathan again played a cameo of 55 runs in 33 balls.This was the second 50 for Yousaf Pathan in the tournament.Jadega also supported him brilliantly and scored 33 runs in 19 balls.In the last over Rajasthan Royals lost Yousaf Pathan. Umar Gul was the bowler and bowled and excellent line for first 3 balls and got the wicket of Shane Warne with an intelligent piece of thinking. Shane Warne was run out probably due to his own laziness. The last over was a good one and only 7 runs were given.

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

Today will be the 18th match of DLF – IPL between Rajasthan Royals and  Kolkata Knight Riders. Rajasthan Royals are very high on confidence due to the excellent performance in the tournament even after they were considered as underdogs. Kolkata Knight Rider are considered to be the strongest team in the tournament but have lost the previoud match and are thus desperate to win  today’s match.

Rajasthan Royals (probable) 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Mahesh Rawat (wk), 3 Yusuf Pathan, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Dimitri Mascarenhas, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Dinesh Salunkhe, 9 Shane Warne (capt), 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel.

Kolkata Knight Riders (probable) 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Salman Butt, 3 Brad Hodge, 4 David Hussey, 5 Mohammad Hafeez, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Laxmi Ratan Shukla, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Murali Kartik, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda. Match details are –

Date – 18th Match May 1, 2008
Venue – Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
16:00 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.

Today in the 16th match of DLF-IPL, Mumbai Indians bowlers bowled superbly to restrict the Knight Riders to a low total of 137 and it was the responsibility of the batsmen to make sure that they win the first match and open the account in points table. Knight Riders started the bowling with a superb spell by Ishant Sharma and Ajit Agarkar. Agarkar got the first breakthrough and soon Ishant bowled the dangerous looking Jayasuriya. The wicket tumbled and rotated many time before falling on the ground – A perfect scene for a fast bowler. Then Dinda bowled Pandey for 0 and it looked that Knight Riders are back into the game and will not let the Mumbai Indians enjoy the first victory. But Uthappa and Bravo played some exquisite shots and had a terrific partnership of 113 runs. It was this partnership which assured the victory of Mumbai Indians.Bravo become the highest run getter in the tournament from Mumbai Indians side by scoring 64runs.Sachin Tendulkar was really very happy to see his team winning the first match.

So April 29 was the day Mumbai Indians won the match at last after loosing four matches in a row. This win will surely do a lot of good for the Mumbai Indians and will boost the morale of the entire team.

Scorecard – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians – 16th Match

In the 16th match of DLF – IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat first but the charged Mumbai Indians were today in no mood to let Kolkata Knight Riders to a flyer. The very experienced Pollock striked twice in the very first over and gave a huge shock to Knight Riders as Ganguly and Mac Cullam were back in the pavilion the very first over and the score was 6/2. Then Ponting and Dass took the score to 40 and it looked like a decent partnership is building up but then Bravo got the wicket of Dass and again the Knight Riders were in serious troubles. Ponting and Hussey took the score to 74 and then Hussey was the one to return to pavilion. Soon Ponting was brilliantly run out by Rahane/Jayasuriya. The problems of Knight Riders were deepened by Jayasurya who took 3 crucial wickets and Knight Riders were struggling at 90/7 in 15.3 overs. Laxmi Ratan Shukla came in to bat and provided some relief to the Knight Riders by scoring 40 runs in 21 balls. Kathik was out in the last over after scoring 10 runs but it was L.R Shukla who played a short timely innings to help Knight Riders score 137 runs in 20 overs.

Scorecard – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians – 16th Match

Today is the Match 16 between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians in the Baap Of Entertainment – DLF – IPL. Kolkata Knight Riders have lost the last match but have won the other two played. But the Mumbai Indians have yet to open the account in the points table. So today we hope both the teams to play for the prestige.

Kolkata Knight Riders: (probable) 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 5 David Hussey, 6 Mohammad Hafeez, 7 Laxmi Rattan Shukla, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Murali Kartik, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda

Mumbai Indians : (probable) 1 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Luke Ronchi (wk), 4 Robin Uthappa, 5 Shaun Pollock, 6 Abhishek Nayar, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Musavir Khote, 9 Ashish Nehra, 10 Dhaval Kulkarni, 11 Siddharth Chitnis

Date – 16th Match April 29, 2008
Venue – Eden Gardens, Kolkata
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 performance.