Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir warned for ugly spat

Source : TOI -

The incident happened off the first delivery of the 10th over bowled by Lakshmipathy Balaji. Kohli, who had hit Pradeep Sangwan for two sixes, went for a wild slash but was caught in the sweeper cover region. As Gambhir and other players walked towards cover region to celebrate the dismissal, Kohli instead of trudging back to the pavilion walked towards short extra cover and apparently made a remark. Suddenly, Gambhir was seen walking angrily towards his junior India teammate. However it was another Delhi lad Rajat Bhatia, who got in between them and tried to calm Gambhir down. This was not the first spat between Indian players during an IPL encounter. Gambhir and Kohli have been not only played together for the country but also for their state side Delhi, North Zone and same office side ONGC. Both Gambhir and Kohli sought to downplay the incident at the presentation ceremony. "Some things happen in the heat of the moment...its nothing", Gambhir said when asked whether he would have a cup of tea with his Royal Challengers Bangalore counterpart on Thursday night. Kohli also shrugged off the on-field spat, saying "what's done on the field is done". Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir warned for ugly spat Skippers Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, who were involved in an ugly spat during Royal Challengers' match against the Knight Riders, were warned and reprimanded for breaching the IPL code of conduct. Kohli and Gambhir were involved in an on-field altercation after the latter was dismissed in the 10th over of the innings. As Gambhir and other players walked towards cover region to celebrate the dismissal, Kohli instead of trudging back to the pavilion walked towards short extra cover and apparently made a remark. Suddenly, Gambhir was seen walking angrily towards his junior India teammate. However it was another Delhi lad Rajat Bhatia, who got in between them and tried to calm Gambhir down. Both skippers admitted to the Level One offence (Article 2.1.4) of using language or a gesture that is obscene, offensive or insulting during the match. For Level 1 breaches of the IPL Code of Conduct, the Match Referee's decision is final and binding.

IPL 6 Live: Ricky Ponting takes amazing catch to dismiss Unmukt Chand, Mumbai Indians v Delhi Daredevils, IPL, Mumbai, April 9, 2013 :MUMBAI WON MATCH BY 44 RUNS

IPL 6 Live: Ricky Ponting takes amazing catch to dismiss Unmukt Chand, Mumbai Indians v Delhi Daredevils, IPL, Mumbai, April 9, 2013

IPL 6: IPL 2013- 10th Match - Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai - 20:00 local | 14:30 GMT

Mumbai Indians would take on Delhi Daredevils in the 10th IPL match of the Indian Premier League tournament. The match will be hosted at Mumbai. Schedule time for IPL match is 20:00 Local Time (14:30 GMT). The match of DD vs MI is schedule to be played in the month of April 2013. The schedule match between MI vs DD would be Day/Night and will be played under flood light condition at Mumbai. 

Teams :

MUMBAI INDIANS

Coach: John Wright

Performance in 2012: They finished third last season, with their most memorable moment being a last-ball finish against CSK. They won 10 of their 16 matches.

X-factor: Lasith Malinga beats Kieron Pollard to be chosen MI’s X-factor. The Sri Lankan is, easily, the most feared bowler in the IPL. Last year, he took 22 wickets in 14 matches. He has a total of 83 wickets at an average of 16.63.

Full squad: Abu Nechim Ahmed, Akshar Patel, Aditya Tare, Aiden Blizzard, Ambati Rayudu, Amitoze Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Harbhajan Singh, Jacob Oram, Jalaj Saxena, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson, Munaf Patel, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Philip Hughes, Pawan Suyal, Pragyan Ojha, Ricky Ponting, Rishi Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal.

DELHI DAREDEVILS

Coach: Eric Simons

Performance in 2012: Finished 1st in the league stage, but wilted in the playoffs.

X-factor: The usual choice would be Virender Sehwag (495 runs in 16 matches last season), but we’ll go with Unmukt Chand. The U-19 skipper was India’s hero  during the World Cup winning campaign last year and has also got his first mainstream ad. He should be given a chance to show what he can do.

Full squad: Ajit Agarkar, Andre Russell, Arisht Singhvi, Ashish Nehra, CM Gautam, David Warner, Gulam Bodi, Irfan Pathan, Jeevan Mendis, Jesse Ryder, Johan Botha, Kedar Jadhav, Kevin Pietersen, Mahela Jayawardene, Manpreet Juneja, Morne Morkel, Naman Ojha, Pawan Negi, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Royston Dias, Siddarth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Venugopal Rao, Virender Sehwag, Yogesh Nagar.

 

IPL 6 : IPL 2013 - 9th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Sunrisers Hyderabad M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore would take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 9th IPL match of the Indian Premier League tournament. The match will be hosted at Bangalore. Schedule time for IPL match is 16:00 Local Time (10:30 GMT). The match of Hyderabad vs RCB is schedule to be played in the month of April 2013. The schedule match between RCB vs Hyderabad would be Day/Night and will be played under flood light condition at Bangalore. 

Teams : 

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Performance in 2012: Well, they were Deccan Chargers before this. The team came second from bottom last year — never really hitting the highs they’re capable of.

Coach: Tom Moody

X-factor: Dale Steyn. He’s fast, lethal and ruthless. He has taken wickets all over the world and is probably the most effective bowler in all three formats. Last year, he took 18 wickets in 12 games. His best figures were 3/8.

Of course, Shikhar Dhawan is another huge factor, but his injury means he may miss part of the season.

Full squad: Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Biplab Samantray, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Clint McKay, Dale Steyn, Darren Sammy, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Jean-Paul Duminy, Karan Sharma, Kumar Sangakkara, Nathan McCullum, Parthiv Patel, Quinton de Kock, Sachin Rana, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Thalaivan Sargunam, Thisara Perera, Veer Pratap Singh.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Coach: Ray Jennings

Performance in 2012: Considering how their batting lineup looks like, their fifth place finish was downright poor. But they lost out on a playoff berth because of net run-rate — showing why it’s so important to avoid those close encounters.

X-factor: He scored 733 runs in 15 matches last year, at a strike-rate of 160.74, with 46 fours and 59 sixes. He is from West Indies. He is a left-handed batsman. And, he is cool. Chris Gayle it is.

Full squad: AB De Villiers, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Andrew McDonald, Arun Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Chris Gayle, Christopher Barnwell, Daniel Christian, Daniel Vettori, Harshal Patel, Jaidev Unadkat, K P Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Moises Henriques Murali Kartik, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pankaj Singh, Prasanth Parameswaran, R Vinay Kumar, Ravi Rampaul, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Aravind, Sandeep Warrier, Saurabh Tiwary, Sheldon Jackson, Sunny Sohal, Syed Mohammad, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Vijay Zol, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan.

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - 8th IPL - Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders- KKR collapses like a deck of cards

Apr 8, 2013 Chasing a decent total of 145 Kolkata Knight Riders, the reigning champions surrendered before the Royals with the latter making it a two out of two in a row. With what seemed to be a decent game of cricket with moderate total to chase, it was the Royal bowlers who did the job for Jaipur. It’s not the first time one has witnessed Kolkata’s batting line up being grounded by the opposition; captain Gambhir despite sticking around for a few overs fell prey into the hands of a not so brilliant delivery but a brilliant catch behind the stumps. Eoin Morgan was the only batsman to outshine the rest in the squad with a good knock of 51 just when Jaipur fans thought he’s going to take the game away from them but Kevin Cooper, the man from Trinidad bowled a brilliant bowl in his final over to as Morgan read it wrong and knocked off the stumps.

Dravid displayed a wonderful captaincy again as he used his bowlers pretty well and one has to say that he should be proud of the job his bowlers did for him. Kolkata batsmen are only to be blamed here with not one of them showed any intention of rotating the strike and it started with Brett Lee’s overconfident shot soon after he sent one for four. All in all, a happy journey so far for Jaipur, the veteran Indian wall has been showing tremendous temperament with his squad. 

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - 8th IPL - Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur - Apr 8, 2013 from 20:00 Local | 14:30 GMT

Rajasthan Royals would take on Kolkata Knight Riders in the 8th IPL match of the Indian Premier League tournament. The match will be hosted at Jaipur. Schedule time for IPL match is 20:00 Local Time (14:30 GMT). The match of KKR vs RR is schedule to be played in the month of April 2013. The schedule match between RR vs KKR would be Day/Night and will be played under flood light condition at Jaipur.

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - 7th Match :(super overs will decide winner) Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bangalore : UPDATE- Sunrisers Hyderabad Won Match

Sunrisers beat RCB through Super Over

Match 7 of IPL 6 between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore finished in an exciting tie at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Hosts Sunrisers pulled off a 5-run win in the eventual Super Over contest. Cameron White made the victory possible with his two sixes helping Sunrisers get 21 on the board in the Super Overs bowled by Vinay Kumar. The chase was too difficult for the RCB as the bowler was going to be Dale Steyn. Chris Gayle tried his best in the four balls he faced, managing to hit one stunning six but Steyn got the better of him and Kohli.
Chasing just 131 for a win, the Sunrisers had made heavy weather of what should have been an easy task. However, the planning wasn’t that right and the onus was put on the local Hyderabadi players to do most of the work while the three overseas batsmen – White, Sangakkara and Perera all failed to get going.

Kumar Sangakkara during match 7 of the Pepsi Indian Premier League between The Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore

Young Hanuma Vihari batted out for a long period, facing 46 balls to score an unbeaten 44 and with a crucial cameo of 14 from 12 balls by Ashish Reddy, took the homeside to near victory. In the final over, Sunrisers needed only 7 to score against the medium pace of Vinay. However, a first ball wicket of Ashish Reddy brought RCB back in the contest and Vinay just managed to prevent Hanuma Vihari from taking Sunrisers to victory. With two runs to score off the final delivery, Vihari was beaten by a slower one but managed to steal a bye to level the scores.
RCB kept down to 130: Sunrisers Hyderabad are eyeing a big upset having restricted the fancied Royal Challengers Bangalore to a modest total of 130 for 8. It was once again a good bowling show from Sunrisers with Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra doing a great job. Dale Steyn for once was costly but the other bowlers made up for him.

Cameron White celebrates the wicket of Chris Gayle during match 7 of the Pepsi Indian Premier League

The strategy for the Sunrisers was simple to get the three star batsmen of the RCB out without much damage. In a surprise move, they opened the bowling with the off breaks of Hanuma Vihari who had Chris Gayle edging behind a square cut with his very first ball. Gayle lasted 2 balls for his 1 before being dismissed in the 2^nd over of the innings. Dilshan (5) got bowled neck and crop through the gate by a beautiful delivery from Ishant which had jagged back.
Virat Kohli, who was the only big player left to construct the RCB innings got going by playing some cracking shots. Kohli skipped down the track to smack Ishant straight down the ground for a superb six. The RCB Captain’s innings was cut short to a 44-ball 46 when medium pacer Ashish Reddy pulled off a stunning one handed catch to his left off his own bowling with Kohli early in his drive.
RCB were at 85 for 4 in 14 overs when Kohli got out and a 40-ball 44 (with 5 fours) from Moises Henriques helped them to a respectable total. Ishant had a good day taking 3 for 27 in 4 overs for the hosts. Mishra bowled out his 4 overs taking 1 for 15 while Thisara Perera chipped in with 1 for 21 off his 4 overs.
Toss and Teams: RCB led by Virat Kohli have won the toss and elected to bat first at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium against hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad. This is the second match for the both these teams who had opened their respective campaigns with close wins.
The important news for this match is that the destructive Chris Gayle has recovered from the injury sustained during the previous match.

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - 6th Match result - Kings XI Punjab thrashed Pune Warriors by 8wickets and started IPL with blazing start

 

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - 6th Match - Kings XI Punjab thrashed Pune Warriors and started IPL with blazing start

A sustained attack from quality seam bowling backed by electric fielding, followed by fearless batting ensured a thumping eight-wicket win for Kings XI Punjab in their first match of the Indian Premier League 2013 on Sunday (April 7).

Punjab's spirit was best exemplified by Manan Vohra, 19, who was sent in at No.3 and smashed 43 not out off 28 balls, an innings that ended whatever contest might have been left in the match after Pune had been restricted to 99 for 9 in their 20 overs.

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - 7th Match : Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bangalore Rajiv Gandhi Int. Stadium, Hyderabad : Apr 7, 2013 from 20:00 Local | 14:30 GMT

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD would take on ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE in the 7th IPL match of the Indian Premier League tournament. The match will be hosted at Hyderabad. Schedule time for IPL match is 20:00 Local Time (14:30 GMT). The match of RCB vs Hyderabad is schedule to be played in the month of April 2013. The schedule match between Hyderabad vs RCB would be Day/Night and will be played under flood light condition at Hyderabad.

Teams :

 

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Performance in 2012: Well, they were Deccan Chargers before this. The team came second from bottom last year — never really hitting the highs they’re capable of.

Coach: Tom Moody

X-factor: Dale Steyn. He’s fast, lethal and ruthless. He has taken wickets all over the world and is probably the most effective bowler in all three formats. Last year, he took 18 wickets in 12 games. His best figures were 3/8.

Of course, Shikhar Dhawan is another huge factor, but his injury means he may miss part of the season.

Full squad: Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Biplab Samantray, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Clint McKay, Dale Steyn, Darren Sammy, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Jean-Paul Duminy, Karan Sharma, Kumar Sangakkara, Nathan McCullum, Parthiv Patel, Quinton de Kock, Sachin Rana, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Thalaivan Sargunam, Thisara Perera, Veer Pratap Singh.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Coach: Ray Jennings

Performance in 2012: Considering how their batting lineup looks like, their fifth place finish was downright poor. But they lost out on a playoff berth because of net run-rate — showing why it’s so important to avoid those close encounters.

X-factor: He scored 733 runs in 15 matches last year, at a strike-rate of 160.74, with 46 fours and 59 sixes. He is from West Indies. He is a left-handed batsman. And, he is cool. Chris Gayle it is.

Full squad: AB De Villiers, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Andrew McDonald, Arun Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Chris Gayle, Christopher Barnwell, Daniel Christian, Daniel Vettori, Harshal Patel, Jaidev Unadkat, K P Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Moises Henriques Murali Kartik, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pankaj Singh, Prasanth Parameswaran, R Vinay Kumar, Ravi Rampaul, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Aravind, Sandeep Warrier, Saurabh Tiwary, Sheldon Jackson, Sunny Sohal, Syed Mohammad, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Vijay Zol, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan.

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - 6th Match Pune Warriors vs Kings XI Punjab Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune : Apr 7, 2013 from 16:00 Local | 10:30 GMT

PUNE WARRIORS would take on KINGS XI PUNJAB in the 6th IPL match of the Indian Premier League tournament. The match will be hosted at Pune. Schedule time for IPL match is 16:00 Local Time (10:30 GMT). The match of KXIP vs Pune is schedule to be played in the month of April 2013. The schedule match between Pune vs KXIP would be Day/Night and will be played under flood light condition at Pune. 

Teams : 

PUNE WARRIORS

Coach: Praveen Amre

Performance in 2012: Last! The only memorable moment is that of Sourav Ganguly running in celebration after taking a wicket, his hair desperately trying to keep up with him. And to top it all, they don’t have Michael Clarke this season due to injury.

X-factor: Parveez Rasool. He’s had a great Ranji season and is the first IPL player from J&K. He took seven wickets in the tour game against Australia, and even though the IPL is a different ball game, we expect to make a mark. No one really knows what he can do and that will work for him.

Full squad: Abhishek Nayar, Ajantha Mendis, Ali Murtaza, Angelo Mathews, Anustup Majumdar, Ashoke Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Harpreet Singh, Ishwar Pandey, Kane Richardson, Krishnakant Upadhyay Luke Wright, Mahesh Rawat, Manish Pandey, Marlon Samuels, Michael Clarke, Mitchell Marsh, Mithun Manhas, Parveez Rasool, Rahul Sharma, Raiphi Gomez, Robin Uthappa, Ross Taylor, Shrikant Wagh, Steve Smith, Tirumalasetti Suman, Tamim Iqbal, Udit Birla, Yuvraj Singh, Wayne Parnell.

KINGS XI PUNJAB

Coach: WV Raman

Performance in 2012: Punjab are not good at winning must-win matches. For three years in a row, they have failed to do so. Last year they won and lost an equal number of games, failing to win more than two games in a row.

X-factor: Azhar Mahmood is the man. We like this guy — he’s a terrorizing presence in the team and can do everything. He fields, bats and bowls. In 2012, he slammed 186 runs in 11 matches and also took 14 wickets. He’s holds a British passport now, and can play in the IPL.

Full squad: Adam Gilchrist, Aniket Choudhary, Azhar Mahmood, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, David Hussey, David Miller, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Gurkeerat Mann Singh, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Luke Pomersbach, Manan Vohra, Mandeep Singh, Manpreet Gony, Nitin Saini, Parvinder Awana, Paul Valthaty, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, R Sathish, Ryan Harris, Sandeep Sharma, Shaun Marsh, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh.

IPL 6: Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Superkings by 9 runs in thrilling match

 Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super kings by 9 runs in thrilling match.

So the match will be remembered for four phases. Pollard played a formidable knock that helped Mumbai Indians reach a respectable score. After the top-order crumbled, MS Dhoni once again played a spectacular knock, one of the best you would ever see. With 40 needed off 18 balls, Pollard became the villain as he leaked 17 runs in the 18th over which had lots of boundaries and drama. Pollard pulled off that spectacular match-winning catch of MS Dhoni and that was the match. All’s well that ends well. Kieron Pollard is undoubtedly the hero for the Mumbai Indians!

IPL 6: Rajasthan Royals beat Delhi Daredevils by 5 runs

IPL 6: Rajasthan Royals beat Delhi Daredevils by 5 runs

David Warner's fiery 77 went in vain as Delhi Daredevils faltered in a close finish and suffered their second consecutive loss in the Indian Premier League (IPL), going down by five runs to Rajasthan Royals at the Ferozeshah Kotla here Saturday.
Warner had almost put the Daredevils on the threshold of a win while chasing 166. But the opening batsman fell in the penultimate over, run out while attempting a tight single, that left Delhi needing nine runs off the last over.
West Indian pacer Kevon Cooper, who picked up 3-30, bowled a fine last over, conceding just three runs and picked up two wickets to leave Daredevils stranded at 160/6 from 20 overs.

The real star was veteran Rahul Dravid, who played a fine captain's knock of a 51-ball 65, studded with four fours and two sixes that propelled Royals to a competitive 165/7. Dravid was adjudged the man of the match.
It was a fine start to inaugural IPL champions Rajasthan Royals' campaign in the sixth edition. The victory was sweeter for the Royals since they had lost both their matches against Daredevils last season.

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - 5th Match- Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians, Chennai on Apr 6, 2013 from 20:00 Local | 14:30 GMT

Chennai Super Kings would take on Mumbai Indians in the 5th IPL match of the Indian Premier League tournament. The match will be hosted at Chennai. Schedule time for IPL match is 20:00 Local Time (14:30 GMT). The match of MI vs CSK is schedule to be played in the month of April 2013. The schedule match between CSK vs MI would be Day/Night and will be played under flood light condition at Chennai. 

Teams :

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

Coach: Stephen Fleming

Performance in 2012: Chennai had such a poor league stage, that you had to rub your eyes when they walked out on the pitch for the final against Kolkata Knight Riders. They lost, but will take pride in the fact that they came back brilliantly to make their fourth final in five years.

X-Factor: Ravindra Jadeja, the $2 million man, did not justify his price tag in his first season with CSK, but we expect he will come up trumps this year. He’s had a good run with the national team, and should do much better than take 12 wickets and score just 191 runs in 19 matches.

Full squad: Akila Dananjaya, Albie Morkel, Anirudha Srikkanth, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, B Aparajith, Ben Hilfenhaus, Ben Laughlin, Christopher Morris, Dirk Nannes, Dwayne Bravo, Francois Du Plessis, Imtiaz Ahmed, Jason Holder, Michael Hussey, Mohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Murali Vijay, Nuwan Kulasekara, R Karthikeyan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ronit More, Shadab Jakati, Subramaniam Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha.

MUMBAI INDIANS

Coach: John Wright

Performance in 2012: They finished third last season, with their most memorable moment being a last-ball finish against CSK. They won 10 of their 16 matches.

X-factor: Lasith Malinga beats Kieron Pollard to be chosen MI’s X-factor. The Sri Lankan is, easily, the most feared bowler in the IPL. Last year, he took 22 wickets in 14 matches. He has a total of 83 wickets at an average of 16.63.

Full squad: Abu Nechim Ahmed, Akshar Patel, Aditya Tare, Aiden Blizzard, Ambati Rayudu, Amitoze Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Harbhajan Singh, Jacob Oram, Jalaj Saxena, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson, Munaf Patel, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Philip Hughes, Pawan Suyal, Pragyan Ojha, Ricky Ponting, Rishi Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal.

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - 4th Match- Delhi Daredevils vs Rajasthan Royals, Delhi on Apr 6, 2013 from 16:00 Local | 10:30 GMT

Delhi Daredevils would take on Rajasthan Royals in the 4th IPL match of the Indian Premier League tournament. The match will be hosted at Delhi. Schedule time for IPL match is 16:00 Local Time (10:30 GMT). The match of RR vs DD is schedule to be played in the month of April 2013. The schedule match between DD vs RR would be Day/Night and will be played under flood light condition at Delhi. 

Teams :

DELHI DAREDEVILS

Coach: Eric Simons

Performance in 2012: Finished 1st in the league stage, but wilted in the playoffs.

X-factor: The usual choice would be Virender Sehwag (495 runs in 16 matches last season), but we’ll go with Unmukt Chand. The U-19 skipper was India’s hero  during the World Cup winning campaign last year and has also got his first mainstream ad. He should be given a chance to show what he can do.

Full squad: Ajit Agarkar, Andre Russell, Arisht Singhvi, Ashish Nehra, CM Gautam, David Warner, Gulam Bodi, Irfan Pathan, Jeevan Mendis, Jesse Ryder, Johan Botha, Kedar Jadhav, Kevin Pietersen, Mahela Jayawardene, Manpreet Juneja, Morne Morkel, Naman Ojha, Pawan Negi, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Royston Dias, Siddarth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Venugopal Rao, Virender Sehwag, Yogesh Nagar.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Coach: Rahul Dravid (captain also)

Performance in 2012: Finished seventh in the table, reaffirming that belief that they would never hit the highs of the 2008 championship winning season.

X-factor: Shane Watson will be dying to prove a point to the CA officials after the treatment meted out to him. If he fires, like his country wants him to, then he can carry Rajasthan on his shoulders with aplomb.

Full squad: Ajinkya Rahane, Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan, Amit Singh, Ashok Menaria, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Dishant Yagnik, Fidel Edwards, Harmeet Singh, James Faulkner, Kevon Cooper, Kusal Janith Perera, Owais Shah, Pravin Tambe, Rahul Dravid, Rahul Shukla, S Sreesanth, Sachin Baby, Samuel Badree, Sanju Samson, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Shreevats Goswami, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny.

IPL 6: IPL 2013- Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Pune Warriors by 22 runs

     Tearaway pacer Dale Steyn grabbed three wickets in a sensational over as Sunrisers Hyderabad spanked Pune Warriors by 22 runs in a low-scoring Pepsi IPL match here on Friday.
Playing in their first match of the IPL under a new name, the Sunrisers defended a small total of 126 for six with their bowlers producing a disciplined show to bundle out the Warriors for 104 in 18.5 overs at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
Steyn dismissed tailenders Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3), Rahul Sharma (0) and Ashok Dinda (0) in the space of four balls in the 19th over to end the Warriors' innings. The South African fast bowler conceded just 11 runs in his 3.5 overs.
Leg-spinner Amit Mishra also claimed three wickets for 19 runs from his four overs while Thisara Perera took two for 29 runs.
The Warriors batsmen fell in quick succession after their openers Robin Uthappa (24) and Manish Pandey (15) raised 36 runs from 41 balls. From 36 for one in the seventh over, they were reduced to 50 for four in the 12th over and they lost the plot from there.
Uthappa's was the highest score for Warriors while Yuvraj Singh could contribute just two runs.
Chasing a small target, the Warriors made a slow start as they struggled to score against the pace of Steyn and Ishant Sharma.
The Warriors were 18 for no loss at the end of the fifth over before Uthappa decided to take on the Sunrisers bowlers.
He first hit Ishant for a six in sixth over before clobbering Perera for three fours on the trot in the next over.

IPL 6 : IPL 2011 - 3rd Match- Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Pune Warriors, Hyderabad on Apr 5, 2013 from 20:00 Local | 14:30 GMT

Sunrisers Hyderabad would take on Pune Warriors India in the 3rd IPL match of the Indian Premier League tournament. The match will be hosted at Hyderabad. Schedule time for IPL match is 20:00 Local Time (14:30 GMT). The match of Pune vs Hyderabad is schedule to be played in the month of April 2013. The schedule match between Hyderabad vs Pune would be Day/Night and will be played under flood light condition at Hyderabad. 

Teams : 

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Performance in 2012: Well, they were Deccan Chargers before this. The team came second from bottom last year — never really hitting the highs they’re capable of.

Coach: Tom Moody

X-factor: Dale Steyn. He’s fast, lethal and ruthless. He has taken wickets all over the world and is probably the most effective bowler in all three formats. Last year, he took 18 wickets in 12 games. His best figures were 3/8.

Of course, Shikhar Dhawan is another huge factor, but his injury means he may miss part of the season.

Full squad: Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Biplab Samantray, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Clint McKay, Dale Steyn, Darren Sammy, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Jean-Paul Duminy, Karan Sharma, Kumar Sangakkara, Nathan McCullum, Parthiv Patel, Quinton de Kock, Sachin Rana, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Thalaivan Sargunam, Thisara Perera, Veer Pratap Singh.

PUNE WARRIORS

Coach: Praveen Amre

Performance in 2012: Last! The only memorable moment is that of Sourav Ganguly running in celebration after taking a wicket, his hair desperately trying to keep up with him. And to top it all, they don’t have Michael Clarke this season due to injury.

X-factor: Parveez Rasool. He’s had a great Ranji season and is the first IPL player from J&K. He took seven wickets in the tour game against Australia, and even though the IPL is a different ball game, we expect to make a mark. No one really knows what he can do and that will work for him.

Full squad: Abhishek Nayar, Ajantha Mendis, Ali Murtaza, Angelo Mathews, Anustup Majumdar, Ashoke Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Harpreet Singh, Ishwar Pandey, Kane Richardson, Krishnakant Upadhyay Luke Wright, Mahesh Rawat, Manish Pandey, Marlon Samuels, Michael Clarke, Mitchell Marsh, Mithun Manhas, Parveez Rasool, Rahul Sharma, Raiphi Gomez, Robin Uthappa, Ross Taylor, Shrikant Wagh, Steve Smith, Tirumalasetti Suman, Tamim Iqbal, Udit Birla, Yuvraj Singh, Wayne Parnell.

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - Match 2 : Gayle inspires Bangalore to first win over Mumbai at home.

From 5 matches against Mumbai Indians at home, Bangalore had never won but today, Chris Gayle showed them the way almost single handly, scoring an almost century while everyother mate struggled at other end. R Vinay Kumar bowled a superb last over to fetch two run victory for red devils..

Seeing the tinge of green and hardness of Chinnaswamy stadium pitch, both captains wanted to bowl first but Ricky Ponting, as he always has been, got lucky with the toss and Virat Kohli found himself at the crease soon after Tillakaratne Dilshan was castled by Mitchell Johnson. Virat looked in fine touch, smashing three fours off first four balls bowled by Jasprit Bumrah, the debutant who is yet to play a first class game. Bumrah came back to trap RCB captain in front of wicket off his fifth ball and once again home team were in trouble at 28 for 2. Bumrah ate up Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair in his next two overs to leave home team tottering at 80 for 5 wickets but Chris Gayle was still at the crease, rather injured after a mild collision with Harbhajan Singh. Gayle scored just 10 runs off his first 17 balls but off next 41 balls, he collected 82 runs, posting a defendable total on board for his team.

Mumbai were given a good platform by high profile opening pair of Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar and then Dinesh Karthik hit his straps but spinners Murali Kartik and Muthiah Muralitharan bowled accurately in the middle overs, stretching the asking rate past two runs a ball. Now, Mumbai had to counter attack breathlessly, and it did happen to some extent as well with Dinesh Karthik smashing Daniel Christian for three sixes in an over but 10 runs required off the last over, R Vinay Kumar did the required and visitors fell two runs short.

Jasprit Bumrah is now the only second bowler in IPL to take three wickets on debut, after Lasith Malinga took 3/15 against Chennai at Cape Town in 2009.

IPL 6: IPL 2013 - 2nd Match- Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians, Bangalore on Apr 4, 2013 from 20:00 Local | 14:30 GMT

Description

Royal Challengers Bangalore would take on Mumbai Indians in the 2nd IPL match of the Indian Premier League tournament. The match will be hosted at Bangalore. Schedule time for IPL match is 20:00 Local Time (14:30 GMT). The match of MI vs RCB is schedule to be played in the month of April 2013. The schedule match between RCB vs MI would be Day/Night and will be played under flood light condition at Bangalore

Teams :  

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Coach: Ray Jennings

Performance in 2012: Considering how their batting lineup looks like, their fifth place finish was downright poor. But they lost out on a playoff berth because of net run-rate — showing why it’s so important to avoid those close encounters.

X-factor: He scored 733 runs in 15 matches last year, at a strike-rate of 160.74, with 46 fours and 59 sixes. He is from West Indies. He is a left-handed batsman. And, he is cool. Chris Gayle it is.

Full squad: AB De Villiers, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Andrew McDonald, Arun Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Chris Gayle, Christopher Barnwell, Daniel Christian, Daniel Vettori, Harshal Patel, Jaidev Unadkat, K P Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Moises Henriques Murali Kartik, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pankaj Singh, Prasanth Parameswaran, R Vinay Kumar, Ravi Rampaul, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Aravind, Sandeep Warrier, Saurabh Tiwary, Sheldon Jackson, Sunny Sohal, Syed Mohammad, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Vijay Zol, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan.

MUMBAI INDIANS

Coach: John Wright

Performance in 2012: They finished third last season, with their most memorable moment being a last-ball finish against CSK. They won 10 of their 16 matches.

X-factor: Lasith Malinga beats Kieron Pollard to be chosen MI’s X-factor. The Sri Lankan is, easily, the most feared bowler in the IPL. Last year, he took 22 wickets in 14 matches. He has a total of 83 wickets at an average of 16.63.

Full squad: Abu Nechim Ahmed, Akshar Patel, Aditya Tare, Aiden Blizzard, Ambati Rayudu, Amitoze Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Harbhajan Singh, Jacob Oram, Jalaj Saxena, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson, Munaf Patel, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Philip Hughes, Pawan Suyal, Pragyan Ojha, Ricky Ponting, Rishi Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal.

IPL 6: IPL 2013- Match 1 : Depleted Delhi no show against defending champs Kolkat

Kevin Pietersen injured, Jesse Ryder hospitalised, Morne Morkel yet to arrive and then Virender Sehwag pulled out last minute for back spasm ~ Delhi failed to turn up against Kolkata in this opening match of the 2013 season and defending champions scored a dominating 6 wickets win at home..

Electing to bowl first, KKR were given a roaring start by fast bowling coach and cricketer Brett Lee who uprooted Unmukt Chand's off-stump off the very first ball of the tournament. None for one, captain Mahela Jayawardene tried to rebuild the platform with David Warner and 44 runs came pretty briskly as well but once this partnership was broken by Sunil Narine, rest of all batsmen returned with single digit scores. Jayawardene held one end while Narine snatched away four wickets from other end while Rajat Bhatia got two others. Delhi were bowled out off the last ball of the inning, restricted to a below average total.

Gold and Purple team too lost star of final of previous year, Manvinder Bisla, early on but captain Gautam Gambhir looked in ominus touch, finding gaps at will and even going over the boundary once. captain Gambhir would probably had finished up match very early but Johan Botha claimed his wicket to slow down the scoring. Jacques Kallis and Manoj Tiwary got out in twenties while Eoin Morgan and Yusuf Pathan finished the match unbeaten. Kolkata won just 8 balls remaning, which they'll feel could've been better.

Sunil Narine was named man of the match for his four-for.

IPL 6 : IPL 2013 - 1st match: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata on Apr 3, 2013 from 20:00 Local | 14:30 GMT

Description

Kolkata Knight Riders would take on Delhi Daredevils in the 1st IPL match of the Indian Premier League tournament. The match will be hosted at Kolkata. Schedule time for IPL match is 20:00 Local Time (14:30 GMT). The match of DD vs KKR is schedule to be played in the month of April 2013. The schedule match between KKR vs DD would be Day/Night and will be played under flood light condition at Kolkata.

Teams :

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

Coach: Dav Whatmore

Performance in 2012: Crowned the champions after a run of 10 wins in their last 13 games took them to their maiden final.

X-factor: Shahrukh Khan. Ok, just kidding! On a more serious note, it’s got to be Sunil Narine. 24 wickets in 15 games last year, plus titles like unreadable and unplayable make him sound dangerous already.

Full squad: Brad Haddin, Brendon McCullum, Brett Lee, Debabrata Das, Eoin Morgan, Gautam Gambhir, Iqbal Abdulla, Jacques Kallis, James Pattinson, Lakshmipathy Balaji Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla, Mohammad Shami, Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Ryan McLaren, Ryan ten Doeschate, Sachithra Senanayake, Sarabjit Singh Ladda, Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Yusuf Pathan.

DELHI DAREDEVILS

Coach: Eric Simons

Performance in 2012: Finished 1st in the league stage, but wilted in the playoffs.

X-factor: The usual choice would be Virender Sehwag (495 runs in 16 matches last season), but we’ll go with Unmukt Chand. The U-19 skipper was India’s hero  during the World Cup winning campaign last year and has also got his first mainstream ad. He should be given a chance to show what he can do.

Full squad: Ajit Agarkar, Andre Russell, Arisht Singhvi, Ashish Nehra, CM Gautam, David Warner, Gulam Bodi, Irfan Pathan, Jeevan Mendis, Jesse Ryder, Johan Botha, Kedar Jadhav, Kevin Pietersen, Mahela Jayawardene, Manpreet Juneja, Morne Morkel, Naman Ojha, Pawan Negi, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Royston Dias, Siddarth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Venugopal Rao, Virender Sehwag, Yogesh Nagar.

IPL 6 opening ceremony - Star-studded glitzy opening ceremony

The 'City of Joy' opened its heart to the cricket world as a dazzling Bollywood-style opening ceremony kicked off the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday, with American rapper Pitbull and superstar Shah Rukh Khan stealing the limelight.

This time around, too, the IPL 6 opening ceremony was a gala affair with fanfare, music and the works. Shah Rukh Khan, who also happens to be the owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, took up the job on his pro shoulders of enthralling audiences with his production company, Red Chillies Entertainment, that took care of every detail of the grand evening.

The stage was set at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium which saw spectacular performances from stars like Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, international rapper Pitbull and SRK as the event was kicked-off with fireworks.

UPDATES FROM THE OPENING CEREMONY:

Once Pitbull left the stage, SRK was back, this time with Katrina and Deepika as they entertained the crowd, for a while, not exactly in 'Gangnam Style.'

And the wait is finally over! Here comes Pitbull!

SRK requests Usha Uthup and Bappi Lahiri to join him on-stage. And there the duo go - "ooua ooua tumse hai tumse pyaar", "dum maaro" with SRK dancing in the background.

Picture abhi baaki hai, says SRK and there begins "chammak challo".

Now, SRK dancing to his popular dance numbers like "Ladki badi anjaani hai".

Shah Rukh begins enthralling the audiences his style by first thanking Mamta Bannejee, IPL Chief, Katrina and Deepika among many others for their presence.

So here we have the man we have been looking for all this while - SRK.

Coming up next: King Khan!

Dressed up in a black lehenga-choli, she is swaying her nimble body to "Mashallah" and "Chikni chameli".

Wow! now arrives Katrina Kaif, princess style!

Now, all the participating team leads are signing the ICC spirit of cricket pledge “Play hard, play fair”.

Here comes Deepika Padukone...She is looking glam and sexy in a metal corset and black leather trousers. Dippy began her live performance by dancing to Honey Singh's "Angrezi beat" and is now shaking her well-toned booty to "Tumhi ho bandhu" from 'Cocktail'. Deepika finishes her act, takes a bow and leaves the stage.

Walkers on stilts take over the stage now. A cavalcade of flying drummers from Europe and gymnasts showing their skills.

IPL Chief, Rajeev Shukla was seen watching the show amongst the audiences. Also spotted was BJP's Arun Jaitley.

WB CM, Mamta Bannejee, pressed the go-ahead button to signal the beginning of the event. This is followed by Rabindranath Tagore’s "Aguner poroshmani" playing in the background as the young dancers take to the arena in ‘Om’ formation, holding aloft torches. Shah Rukh Khan is reciting the poetry "where the mind is without fear" with his powerful voice playing in the background.

Finally, Sameer announces, the opening ceremony is on its way to begin! Yay!

Sherry Paji is sharing his pearls of wisdom on TV.

So here they come. The cheerleaders are introducing all the participating teams with a montage of placards. On the other hand, in the stadium, Bappi Lahiri (bedecked in gold, as usual) and Usha Uthup are excited for their stage performance.

It seems Pitbull can't wait to take the stage. He has tweeted: "@Pitbull finally my performance in india at #PepsiIPL opening ceremony...daleeeeee!"

'Bigg Boss 6' participant Karishma Kotak is introduced by host Sameer as his co-host for the evening.

The scene now shifts from the studio to the main event ground where another host - Gaurav Kapoor - is raring to take the proceedings ahead.

Sameer Kochhar, the host for the evening, introduces Navjot Singh Sidhu and Kapil Dev who are going to be present throughout the entire IPL 6 journey.

IPL 6 - IPL 2013 Match Schedule - IPL T20 2013 Fixture Chart - Venue and Timings

IPL 6 - IPL 2013 Match Schedule - IPL T20 2013 Fixture Chart - Venue and Timings:

Generally, BCCI will announce schedule of a tour or tournament they're to host no more than a month or so in advance but for IPL, they've always been punctual. I'll leave you wondering why is that the case..

Good four months in advance, schedule of IPL 2013 has been released, in exact pattern as it was last year, with just one major change that Deccan Chargers are now named as Hyderabad Sunrisers after Sun group brought the franchise from Deccan Chronicle. Kerala team still remain sidelined which means IPL 2013 will again have 9 teams competing for the crown. Ranchi and Raipur will host their first two IPL matches this season.

Format
There are no groups. Each team plays another twice, once at home and once away. Final standings on points table at the end of 72 matches (16 for each) will decide top four who'll go into play-offs week where top two fight for automatic entrance into final while loser clashes with winner of eliminator between three and fourth placed teams.

Previous winners
Rajasthan Royals in 2008, Deccan Chargers in 2009, Chennai Super Kings in 2010,
Chennai Super Kings in 2011 and Kolkata Knight Riders in 2012. Who'll win in 2013?
following is how tournament will unfold.. 

IPL 2013 Teams - Indian Premier League 2013 Team Previews- (IPL 6)

 IPL 2013 Teams - Indian Premier League 2013 Team Previews

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

Coach: Dav Whatmore

Performance in 2012: Crowned the champions after a run of 10 wins in their last 13 games took them to their maiden final.

X-factor: Shahrukh Khan. Ok, just kidding! On a more serious note, it’s got to be Sunil Narine. 24 wickets in 15 games last year, plus titles like unreadable and unplayable make him sound dangerous already.

Full squad: Brad Haddin, Brendon McCullum, Brett Lee, Debabrata Das, Eoin Morgan, Gautam Gambhir, Iqbal Abdulla, Jacques Kallis, James Pattinson, Lakshmipathy Balaji Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla, Mohammad Shami, Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Ryan McLaren, Ryan ten Doeschate, Sachithra Senanayake, Sarabjit Singh Ladda, Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Yusuf Pathan.

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

Coach: Stephen Fleming

Performance in 2012: Chennai had such a poor league stage, that you had to rub your eyes when they walked out on the pitch for the final against Kolkata Knight Riders. They lost, but will take pride in the fact that they came back brilliantly to make their fourth final in five years.

X-Factor: Ravindra Jadeja, the $2 million man, did not justify his price tag in his first season with CSK, but we expect he will come up trumps this year. He’s had a good run with the national team, and should do much better than take 12 wickets and score just 191 runs in 19 matches.

Full squad: Akila Dananjaya, Albie Morkel, Anirudha Srikkanth, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, B Aparajith, Ben Hilfenhaus, Ben Laughlin, Christopher Morris, Dirk Nannes, Dwayne Bravo, Francois Du Plessis, Imtiaz Ahmed, Jason Holder, Michael Hussey, Mohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Murali Vijay, Nuwan Kulasekara, R Karthikeyan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ronit More, Shadab Jakati, Subramaniam Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha.

MUMBAI INDIANS

Coach: John Wright

Performance in 2012: They finished third last season, with their most memorable moment being a last-ball finish against CSK. They won 10 of their 16 matches.

X-factor: Lasith Malinga beats Kieron Pollard to be chosen MI’s X-factor. The Sri Lankan is, easily, the most feared bowler in the IPL. Last year, he took 22 wickets in 14 matches. He has a total of 83 wickets at an average of 16.63.

Full squad: Abu Nechim Ahmed, Akshar Patel, Aditya Tare, Aiden Blizzard, Ambati Rayudu, Amitoze Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Harbhajan Singh, Jacob Oram, Jalaj Saxena, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson, Munaf Patel, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Philip Hughes, Pawan Suyal, Pragyan Ojha, Ricky Ponting, Rishi Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal.

DELHI DAREDEVILS

Coach: Eric Simons

Performance in 2012: Finished 1st in the league stage, but wilted in the playoffs.

X-factor: The usual choice would be Virender Sehwag (495 runs in 16 matches last season), but we’ll go with Unmukt Chand. The U-19 skipper was India’s hero  during the World Cup winning campaign last year and has also got his first mainstream ad. He should be given a chance to show what he can do.

Full squad: Ajit Agarkar, Andre Russell, Arisht Singhvi, Ashish Nehra, CM Gautam, David Warner, Gulam Bodi, Irfan Pathan, Jeevan Mendis, Jesse Ryder, Johan Botha, Kedar Jadhav, Kevin Pietersen, Mahela Jayawardene, Manpreet Juneja, Morne Morkel, Naman Ojha, Pawan Negi, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Royston Dias, Siddarth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Venugopal Rao, Virender Sehwag, Yogesh Nagar.

KINGS XI PUNJAB

Coach: WV Raman

Performance in 2012: Punjab are not good at winning must-win matches. For three years in a row, they have failed to do so. Last year they won and lost an equal number of games, failing to win more than two games in a row.

X-factor: Azhar Mahmood is the man. We like this guy — he’s a terrorizing presence in the team and can do everything. He fields, bats and bowls. In 2012, he slammed 186 runs in 11 matches and also took 14 wickets. He’s holds a British passport now, and can play in the IPL.

Full squad: Adam Gilchrist, Aniket Choudhary, Azhar Mahmood, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, David Hussey, David Miller, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Gurkeerat Mann Singh, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Luke Pomersbach, Manan Vohra, Mandeep Singh, Manpreet Gony, Nitin Saini, Parvinder Awana, Paul Valthaty, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, R Sathish, Ryan Harris, Sandeep Sharma, Shaun Marsh, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh.

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Performance in 2012: Well, they were Deccan Chargers before this. The team came second from bottom last year — never really hitting the highs they’re capable of.

Coach: Tom Moody

X-factor: Dale Steyn. He’s fast, lethal and ruthless. He has taken wickets all over the world and is probably the most effective bowler in all three formats. Last year, he took 18 wickets in 12 games. His best figures were 3/8.

Of course, Shikhar Dhawan is another huge factor, but his injury means he may miss part of the season.

Full squad: Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Biplab Samantray, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Clint McKay, Dale Steyn, Darren Sammy, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Jean-Paul Duminy, Karan Sharma, Kumar Sangakkara, Nathan McCullum, Parthiv Patel, Quinton de Kock, Sachin Rana, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Thalaivan Sargunam, Thisara Perera, Veer Pratap Singh.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Coach: Ray Jennings

Performance in 2012: Considering how their batting lineup looks like, their fifth place finish was downright poor. But they lost out on a playoff berth because of net run-rate — showing why it’s so important to avoid those close encounters.

X-factor: He scored 733 runs in 15 matches last year, at a strike-rate of 160.74, with 46 fours and 59 sixes. He is from West Indies. He is a left-handed batsman. And, he is cool. Chris Gayle it is.

Full squad: AB De Villiers, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Andrew McDonald, Arun Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Chris Gayle, Christopher Barnwell, Daniel Christian, Daniel Vettori, Harshal Patel, Jaidev Unadkat, K P Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Moises Henriques Murali Kartik, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pankaj Singh, Prasanth Parameswaran, R Vinay Kumar, Ravi Rampaul, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Aravind, Sandeep Warrier, Saurabh Tiwary, Sheldon Jackson, Sunny Sohal, Syed Mohammad, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Vijay Zol, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan.

PUNE WARRIORS

Coach: Praveen Amre

Performance in 2012: Last! The only memorable moment is that of Sourav Ganguly running in celebration after taking a wicket, his hair desperately trying to keep up with him. And to top it all, they don’t have Michael Clarke this season due to injury.

X-factor: Parveez Rasool. He’s had a great Ranji season and is the first IPL player from J&K. He took seven wickets in the tour game against Australia, and even though the IPL is a different ball game, we expect to make a mark. No one really knows what he can do and that will work for him.

Full squad: Abhishek Nayar, Ajantha Mendis, Ali Murtaza, Angelo Mathews, Anustup Majumdar, Ashoke Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Harpreet Singh, Ishwar Pandey, Kane Richardson, Krishnakant Upadhyay Luke Wright, Mahesh Rawat, Manish Pandey, Marlon Samuels, Michael Clarke, Mitchell Marsh, Mithun Manhas, Parveez Rasool, Rahul Sharma, Raiphi Gomez, Robin Uthappa, Ross Taylor, Shrikant Wagh, Steve Smith, Tirumalasetti Suman, Tamim Iqbal, Udit Birla, Yuvraj Singh, Wayne Parnell.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Coach: Rahul Dravid (captain also)

Performance in 2012: Finished seventh in the table, reaffirming that belief that they would never hit the highs of the 2008 championship winning season.

X-factor: Shane Watson will be dying to prove a point to the CA officials after the treatment meted out to him. If he fires, like his country wants him to, then he can carry Rajasthan on his shoulders with aplomb.

Full squad: Ajinkya Rahane, Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan, Amit Singh, Ashok Menaria, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Dishant Yagnik, Fidel Edwards, Harmeet Singh, James Faulkner, Kevon Cooper, Kusal Janith Perera, Owais Shah, Pravin Tambe, Rahul Dravid, Rahul Shukla, S Sreesanth, Sachin Baby, Samuel Badree, Sanju Samson, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Shreevats Goswami, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny.

Courtesy : http://icricketbuzz.com