Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming is hoping to get some cricket under his belt with Wellington before returning for a second stint with Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.

The 35-year-old batsman has been spending time with his family and setting up a new business since retiring from the international scene earlier this year and admitted getting his focus back on cricket would be a battle ahead of next year’s April 10 start date for the Twenty20 tournament.”I think the challenge will be mentally to become a cricketer again. At the moment I’m certainly not a cricketer.

“To be going back and forth is a bit awkward and will be a challenge.”I’ll have to wait and see how I deal with it.”Fleming has not taken up one of Wellington’s 12 full-time contracts and instead hopes to play for them on a more casual basis once the draw has been decided.”I’m trying to put something together that gives me an opportunity to get some cricket under my belt and play well and contribute,” he told Radio Sport.

“So if it can take place then I will certainly do it. If not, then I will just have to batten down the hatches over there.”Turning up cold against Shoaib (Akhtar) and Brett (Lee) doesn’t excite me that much.”
Source: cricket365.com

ISLAMABAD: Renowned Indian actor Shahrukh Khan has inked agreement with Young Pakistani All-rounder Yasir Arafat to represent Kolkata Knight Rider in next season of Indian Premier League (IPL) while Pakistan Cricket Board has also shown green signal to Yasir Arafat in this respect.

Sources closed to Yasir Arfat told this agency, Indian famous actor Mr. Khan held telephonic talks with Young Pakistani All-rounder Yasir Arafat followed by his superb performance in the county cricket. Shahrukh Khan also invited Yasir Arafat to represent his team named “Kolkata Knight Rider” in next cricket season of Indian Premier league (IPL) and also sent a representative to finalize modalities of the agreement.Yasir Arafat, who represented Pakistan in one test and 8 ODIs matches, followed by insist of Shahrukh Khan has agreed to ink agreement and said he has no reservation to play in next season of Indian premier league on behalf of Kolkata Knight Rider, however, he said, he would take green signal from Pakistan Cricket Board in this respect.

The management team of Kolkata Knight Rider also contacted relevant authorities of PCB and discussed views to take services of Yasir Arafat.PCB has also shown green signal to Yasir Arafat. It is merit mentioning here that Pakistani All-Rounder Yasir Arafat took 7 wickets in one test match and made 44 runs, 4 wickets in 8 ODIs by making 48 runs and 551 wickets by making 4914 in 136 first class matches.
Source: onlinenews.com.pk/

In the final of DLF – Indian Premier League, one can not ask for a better match. It was a real thriller in which both the teams fought till the very last bowl. Rajasthan Royals needed 8 runs in last over and Chennai Super Kings needed to defend it or take 3 wickets. But it was Rajasthan Royals who holded the nerves and won the match and thus won the inaugural  DLF – IPL cup.

Chasing a target of  164 Rajasthan Royals kept loosing wickets at regular interval and it looked like Super Kings had a chance but Yousaf Pathan again came to the rescue of Rajasthan Royals and scored 56 before being run out. After that all the batsmen played some useful innings and in the end it was on the shoulders of Shane Warne to take his team toward the victory.The last over was bowled by Balaji and they got 2 on very first bowl and then the next one was a dot ball. Rajasthan Royals needed 6 runs of 3 balls and then a blunder was done by both Patel and Balaji. He bowled a wide which was missed by Patel and Rajasthan Royals got 2 runs and the equation changed to 4 runs from 3 balls. The drama was not ending and it was  1 run from 1 ball. Tanveer scored a boundary and it was all over for Chennai Super Kings.

Rajasthan Royals were treated as underdogs at the start but they have shown that they were the best team in the tournament and thus deserved the Inaugral Cup of DLF- IPL

Today was a final match between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals in the DLF – IPL 2008. This was played at Dr. DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai, on June 1, 2008. Rajasthan Royals won the toss and decided to bowl first. Parthiv Patel and Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan opened the batting for Chennai Super Kings and took the score to 39 before Chennai Super Kings was out. The score of the team was 117 for the loss of 3 wickets in 15 overs. Suresh Raina was the top scorer for Chennai Super Kings, he scored 43 runs. In the end the team scored 163/5 runs in 20 overs.

Scorecard-Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings-Final Mathc-IPL 2008

This is the Final Match of IPL Cricket 2008. The match is between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings. Chennai team is unchanged. Royals have made two changes, Akmal and Niraj Patel come in for the injured Smith and Mahesh Rawat .

Rajasthan Royals (probables): Niraj Patel, Swapnil Asnodkar, Kamran Akmal(w), Shane Watson, Yusuf Pathan, Mohammad Kaif, Ravindra Jadeja, Shane Warne(c), Siddharth Trivedi, Sohail Tanvir, Munaf Patel

Chennai Super Kings (probables): Parthiv Patel(w), Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(c), Subramaniam Badrinath, Chamara Kapugedara, Albie Morkel, Manpreet Gony, Muttiah Muralitharan, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Makhaya Ntini

Final Match of Indian Premier League

Venue – Mumbai

Time – 8 pm IST

Post your comments and suggestions to share your views with other team members of iplcricketlive.com