Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals made a losing start to their South African campaign when they lost by 27 runs against the Cape Cobras in an Indian Premier League warm-up match at Newlands Saturday.

Both teams were well below strength, with the Royals fielding only four of the players who won the IPL last year and the Cobras missing most of the men who won the South African Twenty20 final earlier in the season.

“It’s disappointing to lose but it was a great opportunity for some of the guys to show what they can do,” said Warne.

“Everything we wanted to get out of this game we got although the batting was a bit disappointing.”

Opening bowler Amit Singh bowled impressively to take three for 15 as the Cape Cobras made 142 for eight.

The home side were struggling at 34 for four and 65 for five but prospered through some hard hitting by lower order batsmen Richard Levi (36), Vernon Philander (26) and Rory Kleinveldt (23).

Kleinveldt took four for 34 when the Royals batted to clinch the man of the match award.

Royals’ Australian opening batsman Bob Quiney made a hard-hit 34 off 22 balls but the rest of the batting crumbled. Warne’s 21 was the second-highest score.

Scores

Cape Cobras 142-8 in 20 overs (R. Levi 36, V. Philander 26, R. Kleinveldt 23, A. Singh 3-18); Rajasthan Royals 115 in 19 overs (R. Quiney 34, R. Kleinveldt 4-23, R. Peterson 2-17).

Cape Cobras won by 27 runs.
Source – google.com

Andrew Flintoff does not believe playing in the Indian Premier League will have a detrimental effect on his performances for England because of the amount of cricket he has missed in the last year.

The 31-year-old has had several niggling injuries, the latest of which was a hip problem that ruled him out of the final Test and first two one-day internationals in the West Indies.

It has been suggested Flintoff should be wrapped in cotton wool ahead of the Ashes this summer, but the all-rounder told Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek: “I don’t know about that. I have missed so much cricket through injury that I don’t want to miss any more.”

He added: “I’ve not played a lot of Twenty20 cricket and I’d like to play more. I’m not saying the money is not very appealing, but there’s a lot more to it.

“I spent several weeks working very hard at my fitness when I came back from the West Indies and, hopefully, that will stand me in good stead come the summer.”

Other England players, notably Kevin Pietersen, have said the rigours of a long winter away have taken their toll, and Graeme Swann even likened the events of the last few months to an episode of Eastenders.

Flintoff’s Caribbean tour may have been interrupted by injury but he was involved in the debates following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and he insists missing home is normal.

“It’s been a tough winter all round,” he said. “Going to India before Christmas with everything that happened, and coming home and going back, was testing for everyone.

“There have been lots of things going on. These are long tours. We are proud to play for England but people have got things at home as well and families who you desperately miss when you’re away. When you come to the end of a trip, of course people are looking forward to getting home and seeing people you haven’t seen for a long time.”
Source – google.com

Chennai Super Kings left for Johannesburg on Wednesday morning without their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The Super Kings left for Johannesburg via Dubai at 9.45 this morning on the auspicious day of Lord Aiyappa’s birthday by an Emirates Airlines flight.

Apart from Dhoni, medium pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji and opening batsman Murali Vijay, who will return from New Zealand today and some overseas players, including coach-cum-player Stephen Fleming, Mathew Hayden and George Bailey will join the squad later.

From Johannesburg, the Super Kings will travel to Durban tomorrow where they will set up their training camp.

Kasi Viswanathan, Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association and Head of Operations of the Super Kings told PTI minutes before boarding the flight that the team is geared up to return with the trophy this time.’We are ready for the big occasion”

“We are ready for the big occasion. We want to come back with the trophy this time. We have set our preparations in place with the aim of making the semifinals as a goal and then go full throttle in the final for the trophy that we missed by hair breath last time to Rajasthan Royals,” he said.

The Super Kings would be having a six-day training camp in Durban from April 10-15, which includes a few practice matches against local teams before leaving for Cape Town to play Mumbai Indians in the second match on the opening day of the high-profile Twenty20 tournament. Vishwanathan also informed that alongwith Dhoni, star England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and Kiwi Jacob Oram will be joining the team in Cape Town on April 15.

Dhoni to join on April 15

“Dhoni will be returning to India along with the team today from New Zealand. Of course, he requires some rest. He, alongwith Flintoff and others, will join the team in Cape Town on April 15.

“The Indians as well as overseas players have been involved in international matches for their respective countries and have the experience to straight away go for the matches,” he said.

Viswanathan noted that all the eight teams have made some changes in their squads this time around after first edition’s experience.

“No team could be taken for granted and there could even be high scoring matches as some of the venues have small grounds but the Super Kings will approach every match with caution. We have depth in our bench strength.”
Source – espnstar.com

Led by the charismatic Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Chennai Super Kings will be hoping to go one better after finishing as IPL runners-up last year after signing up Andrew Flintoff.

The Super Kings began the last edition with four straight wins, with much of that initial success due to solid batting performances from Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey.

The Australians were available for only the first four matches – and once they returned home for national duty, the team’s performance fell drastically.

However, Dhoni’s Midas touch as captain never deserted him. Lusty batting from Suresh Raina and Parthiv Patel helped the Super Kings romp into the final, where they proved second-best against the Rajasthan Royals.

The Chennai team’s preference for all-rounders saw them snare Andrew Flintoff at the auction in Goa.

The Super Kings will be without the services of Hussey, and New Zealand’s Jacob Oram has declared himself a doubtful starter.

But with the now-retired Hayden available for the entire duration and South Africans Albie Morkel and Makhaya Ntini in prime form, the team cannot be written off.

Sri Lankan fast bowler Thilan Thushara was roped in to shore up an attack which would revolve around Morkel, Ntini and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Stephen Fleming, the Super Kings’ coach and player, complements the team.
Source – cricket365.com

The West Indies tour did not go well for Andrew Flintoff. Nobody knows what awaits him in his two weeks stint with Indian Premier League, but the million dollar cricketer belonging to Chennai Super Kings have great expectations from the upcoming cricket T-20 tournament.

A hip injury, thigh injury and finally a thumb injury – it was far too much for the English cricketer Andrew Flintoff. But the optimistic cricketer who was bought for a whopping $1.5 price in the IPL Season 2 auction by the Chennai Super Kings hopes that things will work in his direction in the upcoming cricket Twenty-20 cricket tournament. “It’s been frustrating with the hip injury, thigh injury and getting hit on the thumb just before the end of the tour of the West Indies and I think the IPL will be good for me,”. The team that came out number two in the previous season will have this talented English cricketer for two weeks. For Flintoff, it will be a great learning experience ahead of a busy international cricket schedule. The player says that the things he picks up from his team mates as well as the opponents will help him perform better for the England team in the World Twenty20 at home in June.“I know I’m only bowling four overs a game, but it will give me a chance to work on my game in between games going into a Test series and I will be working with top facilities out in South Africa,” Flintoff, who earlier expressed his disappointment at not being able to participate in the tournament in India told the cricket news media.

As the cricketer returns from South Africa, a rather hectic summer at home awaits him and his colleagues in the England team. His teammates in England team, who are going to accompany him in South Africa, are Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara. All of them are to report back to England team management by May 1. The upcoming cricket commitments of England cricket team include: Test and one-day series against West Indies, the World Twenty20, the Ashes and a seven-match one-day series against Australia.

The army of Chennai Super Kings includes the likes of MS Dhoni, Matt Hayden and Muralitharan. Flintoff hopes that observing their playing techniques would help him fine tune his own. And that in turn would help him earn an edge over his World Twenty20 opponents. He particularly mentions Dhoni who has become an authority in shortest format cricket by now and Hayden who has given quite an impressive performance last season.

“While I’m out there I’ll be watching the likes of Dhoni, who has played a lot of it, and Hayden who had a good IPL last year. I will be speaking to a few of the Indian guys and see if I can pick their brains,” said Flintoff. For Flintoff fans out there here are information that would really help: The player is going to play at least seven matches in South Africa. You can watch him play his first match of the season against the Mumbai Indians in Cape Town on April 18. Next interesting match to catch is the one in which he would take on to another multi million dollar English cricketer Pietersen and his team, Royal Challengers. It will take place two days later in Port Elizabeth.
Source – cricket360.com