When Rajasthan Royals meet Deccan Chargers in the second match of IPL 2011, it will be the fight of two equal teams. The contest cannot be expceted to be the fight of favorites, but it will be clash to prove who is the better underdog.
History
Rajasthan Royals won the first edition, when Deccan Chargers finished last. Surprisingly in first edition DC was the favorite to win and RR was expected to be at the bottom. In second edition DC proved why they were considered the best when they won the championship and RR faced doom, to appear just above KKR in the ranking. The third edition saw DC again reach the semifinals, while RR were just not good enough to compete.
Overall
Rajasthan Royals, despite being the underdogs of first three edition, hold an edge over the ex-strong team of Deccan Chargers winning 5 out of six matches. Deccan Chargers have just managed one victory against RR so far.
2008 and 2010
Rajasthan Royals both the group matches in these two editions. While in 2008 they won by 3 wickets and 8 wickets, in 2010 RR won by 8 wickets and 2 runs.
2009
DC won the tournament and managed their only victory against RR when they emerged winner by 3 wickets, although lost the other group match by convincing 53 runs.
Warne Effect
During the fight between Warne-Watson and Gilchrist-Symonds despite having a weaker team Warne always had the uppder hand. Warne with support from team has defeated Deccan Chargers emerging even from the hopeless cases where they were certain to lose.
Revamped Scenario and Chances
Warne and Watson are still there with Rajasthan Royals and have emerged stronger only, despite Warne getting older. Johan Botha and Pankaj Singh are other familiad old faces of RR. DC has only Pragyan Ojha and Harmeet Singh as the regular players of first three editions. The revamped team with ex-Kings XI captain Sangakkara at helm will look forward to change the fate of DC against RR.
But, still it is an uphill task and based on law of averages the new look team can emerge victorious against RR now, as the best players of RR will miss the first match.
Rajasthan Royals Squad
Batsman: Ross Taylor, Rahul Dravid, Swapnil Asnodkar, Amit Singh, Ankeet Chavan, Aakash Chopra, Faiz Fazal, Amit Paunikar, Ajinkya Rahane, Pinal Shah (WK), Dishant Harendra Yagnik (WK)
Allrounder: Shane Watson, Paul Collingwood, Dinesh Salunkhe
Bowlers: Shane Warne (Captain), Shaun Tait, Stuart Binny, Aditya Dole, Nayan Doshi, Samad Fallah, Ashok Menaria, Sumit Narwal, Pankaj Singh, Abhishek Raut, Siddharth Trivedi
Deccan Chargers Squad
Batsman: Kumar Sangakkara (Captain/Keeper), Jean-Paul Duminy, Michael Lumb, Kevin Pietersen, Anand Rajan, Kedar Devdhar, Shikhar Dhawan, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Jaydev Shah, Arjun Yadav
Allrounder: Chris Lynn, Rusty Theron, Cameron White, Ashish Reddy
Bowlers: Dale Steyn, Daniel Christian, Ankit Sharma, Akash Bhandari, Bharat Chipli, Manpreet Gony, Harmeet Singh, Ishank Jaggi, Ishan Malhotra, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Sunny Sohal
Leave a Reply