Dharamsala, May 16
The last time Royal Challengers played Kings XI Punjab was on May 6 in Bangalore. Chris Gayle smashed 107 off 49 balls and Challengers won by 85 runs. That happened only ten days ago but a lot has transpired since then. Challengers now have a new captain now in Virat Kohli because Daniel Vettori has flown back to New Zealand for knee surgery. Gayle has carried on and has now grabbed the orange cap with a menacing streak of bludgeoning sixers and seems to be in no mood to relent. Tillekeratne Dilshan has gone off to England to lead Sri Lanka and Gayle now has a new opening partner in Luke Pomersbach (Does Gayle even notice his opening partner?). The Challengers have also qualified for the play-offs.

Kings XI Punjab have sort of recovered from that hiding that Gayle gave them in Bangalore and have won three games on the trot. They are in a new location in Dharamsala and their team seems to be getting back on track. They need to win the remaining two games to stay in the hunt. For that to happen, they need to figure out a way of stopping Gayle. It won’t ensure victory but it will surely make their task a lot easier.

After Kings won their match against Delhi Daredevils here on Sunday, captain Adam Gilchrist showered praise on leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, saying he’s truly international class. Gayle would disagree with Gilchrist’s assessment of Chawla. The way the West Indian dismissed the first two balls from Chawla for sixes in Bangalore told their own story. And the Challengers outfit is not about Gayle alone.

Kohli has led the team in two matches and has won both. He seems to be relishing his new role. He remains a dangerous batsman, and with the likes of AB de Villiers and Saurabh Tewari to follow, the Challengers batting line-up has a solid look about it. Kings too are not short of firepower with Paul Valthaty, Shaun Marsh and Dinesh Karthik all in good nick. So, it should be a tussle between these big-hitters from both sides.

The wicket here is hard and has a greenish look about it. Bowlers like Zaheer Khan (RCB) and Praveen Kumar (Kings) will love to bowl on this track.

The match will also not be short of Bollywood glamour. Priety Zinta is already here and Deepika Padukone flew in today (with Siddharth Mallya, of course). Vijay Mallya and his gang of supporters are here as well. So, the contest tomorrow will have a bit of everything — big-hitters, fast bowlers, corporate honchos, Bollywood actors, cheerleaders, starry-eyed fans — in short, all the trappings of a perfect IPL tamasha.

Mumbai, May 16
The dismal run of form for Pune Warriors continued as they were beaten by Deccan Chargers by 6 wickets in an Indian Premier League match here tonight.

The Chargers were in complete control as they succesfully chased down their target of 137. Sunny Sohal once again batted with flair at the top of the order and with captain Kumar Sangakkara and JP Duminy also chipping in, the result was a foregone conclusion.

For the Warriors, Rahul Sharma was once again the standout bowler, picking up two wickets.

Earlier, Pune Warriors India put up a listless batting display, losing three wickets in seven balls midway, to be restricted to a modest 136 for nine.

Put in to bat by Chargers skipper Kumar Sangakkara, the Warriors started on a promising note with a 31-run opening partnership between Manish Pandey (23) and Jesse Ryder (13) before suffering a dramatic slide at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

The sudden slump, which started off the last ball of the fourth over and continued till the fifth ball of the seventh, saw the Warriors -– who had a slim chance of advancing to the play-offs going into the clash — losing five wickets for 14 runs, three of them at the same score of 45.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, who has returned to the Indian team for the tour of the West Indies, accounted for two wickets in as many balls in his maiden first over, after Dale Steyn, Dan Christian and Pragyan Ojha took the first three wickets.

Skipper Yuvraj Singh (23) kept the innings going, but he too departed after getting a good start in the 15th over, leaving the Warriors at an unimpressive 92 for seven. — PTI

Scoreboard
Pune Warriors
Ryder c Teja b Steyn 18
Pandey b Ojha 23
Ganguly c Ojha b Christian 0
Uthappa c & b Mishra 4
Yuvraj c S’kara b Christian 23
Manhas b Mishra 0
Ferguson c & b Duminy 11
Mitch b Ojha 37
Parnell run out 16
B Kumar not out 1
Extras (lb 1, w 2) 3
Total (9 wkts; 20 overs) 136
Bowling: Duminy 2-0-19-1, Steyn 4-0-23-1, Ishant 3-0-19-0, Christian 3-0-13-2, Ojha 4-0-35-2, Mishra 4-1-26-2.

Deccan Chargers
Sohal lbw b Rahul 34
Dhawan st Uthappa b Yuvraj 28
S’kara c Uthappa b Rahul 25
Duminy b Parnell 23
Christian not out 14
Chipli not out 5
Extras (w 9) 9
Total (4 wkts; 19.2 overs) 138
Bowling: B Kumar 2-0-10-0, Parnell 3.2-0-27-1, Rahul 4-0-25-2, Mitch 3-0-30-0, Yuvraj 4-0-27-1, Manhas 3-0-19-0.

Indore, May 16
Kochi Tuskers Kerala might be out of reckoning for the IPL playoffs but skipper Mahela Jayawardene said his team has not done too badly in its debut sesaon and would aim to be more consistent. "We need to try and be more consistent, that's a key word in Twenty20 cricket," Jayawardene said after his side's eight-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals here last night. More than the win, the stylish Sri Lankan was delighted by the manner in which his team achieved it.

"Easy win, so happy with that," he said. "The other day we couldn't defend 180, today we executed our plans." With 12 points from 13 matches, Kochi are placed sixth in the points table, and the skipper, after playing his last IPL match of the season, wants his teammates to finish it on a high. We want to finish off the season on a high, with 14 points, and we'd like to say we had a good season," Jayawardene, who will be leaving for England to join the national team, said.

A disappointed Rajasthan skipper Shane Warne, meanwhile, felt his team was 100-120 runs short in the small Holkar Cricket stadium ground. "It was probably one of those nights when you were 100-120 short. We can only try as much as we can. I'm proud of our guys as they are trying very hard. (But) to lose four games in a row, we've just made too many mistakes," Warne said.

The legendary Australian was disappointed that his side failed to perform to its potential in front of a packed Sunday crowd. "It's disappointing for the fans. Such a great crowd and buzz here," he said.

Kochi batsman Brad Hodge, who was declared Man of the Match for his all-round show, said the side is still short of where it should be. "We've performed pretty well. We are short of where we need to be, but it's coming together. Chasing a low total, the plan was to just go in there and play with freedom and get the job done," Hodge said.

"We are up against Chennai, it's going to be a tough game but hopefully we can pull it off." Hodge also recalled the days when he would bowl to Warne at the Junction Oval. "It's good for us to come up here and put in a good performance. Warne's got me out plenty of times, I got lucky to be honest. Used to bowl to him at the Junction Oval." — PTI 

New Delhi, May 16
Though cricket is not a priority discipline in the Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) scheme of things, the game has attracted the maximum number of trainees under SAI’s ‘Come and Play Scheme’. Before the Commonwealth Games, there were four cricket coaching centres under SAI - Nehru Stadium, Indira Gandhi Stadium complex and the National Stadium (two grounds). But now, there is only one cricket ground, at the National Stadium.

When renovation and rebuilding of the stadiums began for the Commonwealth Games over two years ago, the cricket centres were shifted to the Central Secretariat ground at Vinay Marg.

After Ajay Maken took charge as Sports Minister, and initiated the ‘Come and Play Scheme’ at the SAI centres, cricket was shifted back to the National Stadium, though the SAI is in a bind as to how to accommodate all the five coaches at this centre. Dronacharya Awardee Sunita Sharma, Maninder Singh and Raju Tandon were initially transferred back to the National Stadium, and when Sunita fell ill, the other coaches - Ramesh Chopra and Mohan Sharma - were also brought back to the National Stadium, though the cricket centre at the Central Secretariat ground continues to function.

According to the figures released by the Sports Ministry, 2,400 trainees have been enrolled for cricket at National Stadium as against just 325 for hockey. The Dhyan Chand National Stadium is primarily a hockey stadium, with three synthetic turfs, though not many boys and girls are interested in learning the game, as the number of trainees indicates.

After cricket, football and swimming have attracted maximum trainees. While 1, 498 players have enrolled for football at Nehru Stadium, 1,000 are enlisted for the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Complex at the Talkatora Gardens.

Spread across the five stadiums, a total number of 9,238 trainees have enrolled for various disciplines, but the number of cricket trainees would have gone up manifold had SAI retained all its four cricket centres. In fact, the total number of trainees enrolled for training in eight disciplines at the Indira Gandhi Stadium stands at just 3,030, only 800 more than the cricket trainees at the National Stadium.

Colombo, May 16
As many as 12 Indian cricketers, including the likes of Munaf Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin, are expected to feature in the first edition of the Sri Lankan Premier League (SLPL) scheduled to commence from July 19. According to a report in 'islandcricket.com', Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has secured the services of several prominent overseas cricketers, including Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard, who are currently engaged in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Apart from Gayle, whose blistering strokeplay has put the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the top of the points table in the fourth edition of the IPL, SLPL is also expected to feature Daniel Vettori, whose IPL journey was cut short after a recurring knee injury. Among the Indian players on the SLPL radar, the inclusion of Patel and Ashwin besides Praveen Kumar, who was recently selected for the West Indies tour after missing the World Cup due to an elbow injury, comes as a surprise as the trio is likely to be on national duty during that period.

India is scheduled to visit England during the month of July for a four-match Test series followed by a one-day tournament and a one-off Twenty20 match. The other Indian players who figure in the list posted by the website include Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Manish Pandey, Manoj Tiwary, Paul Valthaty, Ravindra Jadeja, Saurabh Tiwary, Umesh Yadav and Vinay Kumar.

The list, which in all features 33 overseas players so far, also includes the names of David Warner, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Akmal, Albie Morkel, Herschelle Gibbs, Kevin O'Brien and Tamim Iqbal among others. — PTI

Rome, May 16
Novak Djokovic took his unbeaten start to 2011 to 37 matches as he stunned world number one Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-4 to win the Rome Masters. Yesterday was the fourth time in a row the Serbian has beaten Nadal in a Masters final this season and the second successive week he has done so on clay after winning in Madrid.

Djokovic has won all seven tournaments he's played this year, including the Australian Open, and must surely now be considered the favourite going into the French Open which starts next Sunday. The world number two, who lost all of his eight previous matches on clay against the Spaniard before his Madrid triumph, is also homing in on Nadal's top ranking.

He played some wonderful tennis on Sunday.

At 3-3, 30-15, Djokovic found an impossible angle to hit a forehand winner and secured that game after running Nadal all over the back of the court, the Spaniard netting a backhand on the stretch. — AFP