Date – 19 April 2009

Pacer RP Singh four wicket haul helped Deccan Chargers to have a 8 wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders. Newly appointed captain Brendon McCullum for Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat first. RP Singh restrict Knight Riders to 101 runs in 19.4 overs. He took four wickets for 22 runs in his 3.4 overs. In reply to non-competitive total Herschelle Gibbs and Rohit Sharma taste the victory in 13.1 overs. Herschelle Gibbs was not out at 43 runs and ROhit Sharma scored 36 runs in 32 balls. It was a perfect start of season for Deccan Chargers.

Man of The Match – RP Singh

Playing XI –

DC – Adam Gilchrist (C) (W), Herschelle Gibbs, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Scott Styris, Venugopal Rao, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Fidel Edwards, Harmeet Singh

KKR – Brendon McCullum (C) (W), Chris Gayle, Sourav Ganguly, Brad Hodge, Aakash Chopra, Moises Henriques, Laxmi Shukla, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda

Date – 19 April 2009

Delhi DareDevils register an easy win over Kings XI Punjab in a rain affected match. Delhi DareDevils won the toss and elected to field first in a 12 over match. But decision taken by Sehwag to field first was not correct as the opening batsman of Kings XI Goel and Ravi Bopara got a good start. Goel scored 38 runs from 21 balls with three fours and three huge sixes and Bopara made 22 from 16 balls. After that Skipper Yuvraj hits two huge sixes and score 16 runs before he was run out. From Delhi DareDevils Daniel Vettori was successful bowler as he took three wickets for 15 runs in three overs. Kings XI put a score of 104 run in 12 overs. Chasing a revised target of 54 runs in 6 overs, Sehwag and Gambhir register an easy win with seven balls left. Sehwag hit 38 runs from just 16 balls.

Man Of The Match – Daniel Vettori

Playing XI –

KXIP – Taruwar Kohli, Karan Goel, Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara (W), Yuvraj Singh (C), Irfan Pathan, Ravi Bopara, Vikramjeet Malik, Piyush Chawla, VRV Singh, Yusuf Abdulla

DD – Virender Sehwag (C), Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik (W), AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Manoj Tiwary, Avishkar Salvi, Daniel Vettori, Pradeep Sangwan, Yo Mahesh, Dirk Nannes

Date – 18 April 2009

It was a perfect start for Royal Challengers Banglore at Newlands, Cape Town where they beat last time IPL Champions Rajasthan Royals by 75 runs. New captain of Royal Challengers, Kevin Pietersen won the toss and elected to bat first. It was not the good start for Royal Challengers as Rajasthan all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas give early double blow to them by sending Jesse Ryder and Kiwi Ross Taylor back to pavilion. After that Robin Uthappa too joined company of Taylor and Ryder by scoring just 3 runs. But it was Pietersen and Dravid who started a fightback. Pieterson made 32 runs but the ‘Wall’ Dravid scored 66 runs from just 48 balls with eight fours and a six and put a total of 133 for 8 in 20 overs. In reply to this Rajasthan Royals opening batsman Asnodkar and Smith were bowled out by Praveen Kumar in first his two overs. Veteran leg spinner legend Anil Kumble helped Royal Challengers to win the match as he took 5 wickets in his 3.1 over by giving just 5 runs. No batsman of Rajasthan Royals scored more than 11 runs and whole time was bowled out for just 58 runs

Man Of The Match – Rahul Dravid

Playing XI –

Date – 18 April 2009

The 1st match of DLF – IPL was between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Chennai won the toss and decided to field first. Little Master Sachin Tendulkar laid solid foundation for Mumbai Indians by scoring 59 runs not out which helped to put a descent total of 165 at scoreboard. Young talented batsman Abhishek Nayar hit three massive sixes to Flintoff’s over. Drafted from Delhi Daredevils Shikhar Dhawan scored 22 runs.  Sanath Jayasuriya scored 26 runs. In reply to this former Australian opener Matthew Hayden hit 44 and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni 36. 1.55-million dollar man Andrew Flintoff scored 24 runs before he was caught and bowled by Harbhajan Singh. Chennai Super Kings manage to scored only 146 for 7 in 20 overs. Fast bowler Lasith Malinga take three for 15 runs in four overs for Mumbai.

Man Of The Match – Sachin Tendulkar

Playing XI –

Thursday the streets were filled with fanfare as the Indian Premiere League made its entrance into Cape Town. The star studded parade featured nine floats; one for each of the eight teams and one for the Indian Premiere League. Indian dancers and brass bands from the community made their way down the streets with the league.

There were more than one-hundred and fifty cricket players who attended along with Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and of course Shilpa Shetty. It was no surprise that they each own teams including the Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals.

There were large crowds of people who gathered to watch the parade. The Indian Premiere League parade kicked off festivities that will run until the finals in Johannesburg on May 24. The Indian Premiere League commissioner Lalit Modi also decided to enlist help to find a Miss Bollywood South Africa.

Lalit Modi said “We’re looking for someone who has the star quality to stand out in a crowd, probably without even trying that hard…It’s that special, almost indefinable, quality that makes someone a star more than a beauty queen that we are looking for. IPL matches with their mix of fun and excitement are an excellent environment to identify the kind of person who is a natural stand-out in a big crowd.”

Someone who did stand out in the crowd was the sexy Shilpa Shetty. She always brings energy and fun to any event she gets involved with. That’s why for those of you who couldn’t be at the parade can check out some pictures we got. Take a look and tell us what you think about all the excitement over the Indian Premiere League. Do you think the parade was necessary or do you think that it was too much fuss over a sport? Give us your thoughts on the parade.
Source – desihits.com