Kings XI:
Sohal c Venugopal b Rohit 30
Katich c Venugopal b Rohit 9
Sangakkara b Shoaib 25
Yuvraj c Gilchrist b Shoaib 18
|Jayawardene run out 43
Irfan c Shoaib b Suman 10
Mota run out 3
Lee not out 14
Chawla not out 8
Extras (lb 6, w 3) 9
Total (7 wickets; 19.5 overs) 169
Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-42, 3-85, 4-86, 5-116, 6-127, 7-149.
Bowling: Harris 3-0-29-0, RP 2.5-0-26-0, Shoaib 3-0-25-2, Rohit 2-0-12-2, Venugopal 1-0-3-0, Suman 3-0-24-1, Symonds 1-0-20-0, Ojha 4-0-24-0.

On a chilly evening in this diamond mining region, Chennai Super Kings established a clean slate in this year’s Indian Premier League over Rajasthan Royals, beating the latter in the return fixture by seven wickets. Last year, Royals turned the tables on Super Kings in the final.

Mathew Hayden’s form in the 2nd season of the Indian Premier League – his run aggregate looks almost unassailable at present – has been quite awesome. On a difficult pitch, with the ball stopping and turning, with the additional devil of the evening dew, he invaluably adapted his approach to one of slight caution rather than burden his less experienced colleagues to tackle the vagaries.

He realised 89 runs for the 3rd wicket with Subramaniam Badrinath (59 not out), yet he didn’t finish the job. The wily Shane Warne beat him with a widish delivery to have him stumped for 48.

Having contained Royals to 140 for seven, Super Kings were always in control. But it still needed one big over to make it comfortable. This one came in the 16th of the innings, when Badrinath recorded a bountiful 20 runs off Harwood, which included three fours and a six – a straight ball hooked over his shoulder to fine leg as he moved across to outside the off-stump.

Super Kings lost Murali Vijay early – trapped lbw. And Suresh Raina promised much, thrashing Amit Singh, reported for his bowling action, for six to long on and then driving him off the back foot through the covers. But he targeted him once too often to top edge a pull which ended at point.

With the ball gyrating prodigiously, Shane Warne thought Hayden had gloved him to the ‘keeper, but the umpire disagreed. Next ball, the burly left-hander stepped out to the blond leg spinner to land him on a TV cameraman’s tripod. It was an intriguing duel between two greats of the contemporary game.

At 111 for seven, Royals seemed to be staring down the barrel. But Warne, who had come in at number eight, struck two fours and a six – to long at Shadab Jakati’s cost - to remain unbeaten on 24. This revved his side to a competitive total.

Naman Ojha, one of the batting successes of the tournament, played inside the line of a perfect leg cutter from Albie Morkel in the third ball of the innings. Graeme Smith with Swapnil Asnodkar then rebuilt the innings, but at only six runs per over.

54, though, was the best partnership of the innings; at which point Asnodkar was trapped leg before by Muttiah Muralitharan. And this shrewd Sri Lankan struck again when he angled an off break away from Smith to have him stumped. He finished with respectable figures of two for 22.

Ravindra Jadeja looked good – 27 off 19 – once slog sweeping Jakati for a six to midwicket, but his stay was terminated by a magnificent catch by Raina at point off Lakhsmi Balaji, who boasted the most economical return of one for 13 in three overs. Yusuf Pathan’s fireworks, incidentally, blew a fuse after he had extracted an over boundary to long on from the expensive Jakati.

Scoreboard

Rajasthan Royals:
Smith st Dhoni b Muralitharan 30
Ojha b Morkel 0
Asnodkar lbw b Muralitharan 26
Jadeja c Raina b Balaji 27
Yusuf c Oram b Jakati 7
Carseldine run out 9
Raut st Dhoni b Jakati 7
Warne not out 21
Harwood not out 6
Extras (lb 5, w 1, nb 1) 7
Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 140
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-54, 3-75, 4-92, 5-100, 6-104, 7-111.
Bowling: A Morkel 3-0-24-1, Tyagi 2-0-12-0, Balaji 3-0-13-1, Oram 1-0-8-0, Muralitharan 4-0-22-2, Jakati 4-0-35-2, Raina 3-0-21-0.

Chennai Super Kings:
Vijay lbw b Trivedi 10
Hayden st Ojha b Warne 48
Raina c Carseldine b Singh 13
Badrinath not out 59
Oram not out 1
Extras (lb 2, w 8) 10
Total (3 wickets; 18.2 overs) 141
Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-37, 3-126.
Bowling: Yusuf 4-0-28-0, Amit 3-0-25-1, Trivedi 3-0-23-1, Harwood 2-0-22-0, Warne 4-0-27-1, Jadeja 2.2-0-14-0

The honeymoon is over; the knives are out. The Star, one of South Africa’s leading dailies, while still devoting considerable space on its sports section to the Indian Premier League and carrying full page advertisements placed by the organisers, has come down heavily on what it describes as a “soulless” event.

“There’s too much of it; nobody cares for 59 games of 20-over cricket in five weeks,” it commented. It cited that even at Durban, where there’s a large Indian origin population, the stands have been half full.

The paper lashed out at sponsors of the competition being “thanked endlessly”. And sarcastically said: “Sponsors might be happy to be thanked as often as they are by the IPL’s team of spokesmen – they can hardly be called commentators anymore, so much have they sold themselves to the corporations – but there comes a time when it wouldn’t be a bad idea to employ a little subtlety.”

“A six that’s no longer a six, but a maximum sponsored by an Indian realty company whose finances have taken a hit during the credit crunch,” it continues, “and a catch that’s a success backed by a bank that needed bailout money from the (US President Barack) Obama administration.”

Unusually, the IPL, not a broadcaster, hires the TV commentators. The incest is made worse by the same people acting as in-field impresarios and publicists of sponsors, not to mention some of them being a part of the governing council of the league.

The so-called strategic time out – a negative influence on the cricket - is nothing but an extended commercial break. Privately, the cricketers-turned-commentators denigrate the development, but on air are at best soft in their disapproval.

Every match in the 2nd edition of the IPL has been as much a concert and fireworks display (and the so-called cheer leaders were down to bikinis in one match), thus devaluing the cricket. “After a while, seeing Shilpa Shetty and Prety Zinta flick their well-made-up hair becomes dull, too,” the broadsheet asserted.

The publication points out: “Gimmicks like the Miss Bollywood competition – which was supposed to be about finding unknown girls and putting them in a Bollywood movie – has instead offered prizes to an ex-Miss South Africa and a former Sports Illustrated swimwear model.”

More seriously, it alleges: “Even the attempt at giving Rand15,000 (Rs 90,000/-) to children to pay for their schools fees has left the IPL with egg on its face, with a rather large number going to kids who are in expensive private schools.”

The Star’s most severe criticism was, however, reserved for Lalit Modi, commissioner of the IPL, hogging television time and indulging in crude self-promotion. “Why does he need to be at the toss?” it asked. Admittedly, rarely if ever in the history of cricket has a tournament organiser tossed the coin.

After the exit of the English heavyweights, the IPL management was trumpeting the imminent arrival of an Australian contingent. But their hopes have dashed by Cricket Australia barring Shane Watson, Nathan Bracken and James Hopes (of King’s XI Punjab) from participation so as not to aggravate their injuries. Of course, Andrew Symonds is back for Deccan Charges.

CA’s approach is, in fact, a fine example to the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Where the former put national interest first, the BCCI’s top priority is money-making. India are the defending champions in next month’s World Twenty20; yet Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan – two vital elements in the Indian squad – have injured themselves playing the IPL.

“Look for an ‘Indian cut’ sign,” the hotel receptionist advised. There was apparently none; and the manageress of the only visible haircutting saloon in the shopping mall was convinced the job could be done; and confidently summoned one of her barbers. Clearly, she wanted the business and cared two hoots about the client. Moral of the story: Be careful before committing straight hair to a person accustomed to curls!

Mumbai, May 9
Police have begun a crackdown on hotels, restaurants and pubs across the country that are screening IPL cricket matches without a license. According to officials of SET Max which runs the Sony television channels, hotel and restaurant owners in a number of places have been booked over the past few days.

Earlier this week, SET Max and its affiliate Novex Communications which holds the cable distribution rights for the Sony channels, got an injunction from the Delhi High Court which barred commercial establishments from screening the IPL matches without a special license. The order from the Delhi High Court is applicable across the country.

“We moved the courts because a large number of restaurants were showing the IPL matches without a license,” says Ketan Kanakia, Managing Director, Novex Communications. According to him the fees for a restaurant to screen Sony channels for a year is Rs 60,000.

The company had meanwhile compiled a list of major restaurants and pubs in cities like Mumbai where the matches were screened without a license. Acting on complaints filed by the company, police officials in Mumbai, Delhi and some other cities raided establishments and booked senior employees. Police say, equipment like set-top boxes and television sets were seized in raids.

At least one major pub in Mumbai called the Bootleggers that was raided by the police is locked in a big battle with the television channels over the signing of the agreement to screen the IPL matches.

New Delhi, May 9
Players from 50 countries will participate in the World Badminton Championship, to be held at the Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad, from August 10 to 16. India would be hosting this mega event for the first time.

The World Badminton Championship, which is held every year, except in an Olympic year, was last held in Kuala Lumpur in 2007, and will move to Paris next year. 

The tournament will feature some of the biggest names in men’s and women’s badminton like Lin Dan, Taufik Hidayat, Chong We Lee, Tine Rasmussen, Mi Zhou and Lan Lu while the Indian team will include their best talent like Saina Nehwal, Anup Sridhar, Jwala Gutta and Chetan Anand.

India had played host to some major badminton events such as the World Junior Championship-2008 and the Grand Prix series in the run up to the World Championship.