Rajasthan Royals

There are no two teams possessing such starkly differing characteristics as the Rajasthan Royals and the Royal Challengers Bangalore. 

RCB are a team defined by star quality, by individual brilliance. They possess three of the best, if not the three best, Twenty20 batsmen in the world in Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. They have spent more money on one player, Yuvraj Singh, than any franchise has ever spent on a single player. They have one of the wealthiest owners in the IPL. 

The Rajasthan Royals are generally thought to be prudent spenders—frugal and wise. They possessed the cheapest squad in the first edition of the IPL yet went on to win it. And since they've always managed to compete, not through lavish spending and star names, but through calculation, sagacity and strategy. 

This season the difference between these two teams has rarely been so obvious and indeed pertinent. 

The Rajasthan Royals require just two victories from their final five matches to be confident of qualifying for a place in the play-off stage. 

The Royal Challengers Bangalore, on the other hand, must now win all five of their remaining matches to stand a chance of qualification. 

The two matches between the two sides this season have been won by Rajasthan. First, they obliterated RCB, dismissing them for 70 before seeing off the runs with ease. And today, in a pulsating encounter, the Royals pulled off an extraordinary heist, scoring an amazing 64 runs off their last 17 deliveries to win with seven balls to spare. 

RCB's performance today was entirely governed by the brilliance of two players, Yuvraj Singh and AB de Villiers. The pair came together 30-4 and were broken up at 172-4. Yuvraj scored 83 and de Villiers scored 58, in a partnership that single-handedly wrestled the match into the hands of RCB:

Then, with the ball, Yuvraj's 4-35 was essentially the lone star hand for the Royal Challengers. The rest of the attack, Yuzvendra Chahal aside, were pulverised. And the overs bowled by Ashok Dinda and Varun Aaron at the death, during the Royals final assault, lost RCB the match. 

Meanwhile, RR managed to chase a total of 190 with a top score of just 56, and with the ball, there was no one bowler who stood out as a star performer. It was a victory governed by team brilliance. 

Of course, the incredible blitz of Steve Smith and James Faulkner at the end will stand out as the reasons for the Royals' victory, but it was a win for a team whose brilliance runs deeper than the headline makers. 

In Paddy Upton and Rahul Dravid, the Rajasthan Royals have a supreme management double act. Shane Watson appears to have taken to captaincy well and with a nicely balanced squad, possessing young and old. The whole team appear to be bringing the best out in each other. 

The Rajasthan Royals often appear to have no right to win the matches they do, but in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. They have more right to victory than those teams reliant on individual brilliance, for the Royals are well-drilled, well run and efficient. From top to bottom, they are a solid cricket team. And for that, they deserve all the success that comes their way.

Wicket, one run, wicket, dot ball, wicket, dot ball, wicket (stumping) off wide ball, wicket, wicket.

This extraordinary sequence of eight legitimate deliveries—which gained the Rajasthan Royals six wickets, including a hat-trick for Pravin Tambe, against the Kolkata Knight Riders at Ahmedabad in the Indian Premier League on Monday—has got to be one of the most extraordinary plays ever witnessed on a cricket field.

This tournament has seen its fair share of controversies over the last six years, with many questioning its legitimacy due to ongoing investigations on betting and spot-fixing in the previous season, but Monday marked a victory for the fans of the game who chose to stick by.

The Rajasthan Royals won a match they were destined to lose up until the 14th over of the second innings, when the Kolkata Knight Riders needed 50 off 36 balls with all 10 wickets in hand.

The events that followed would embarrass even the best of chokers, as Kolkata stunningly collapsed from 121 for no loss to 123 for six in a matter of eight deliveries and went on to lose the match by 10 runs.

While much would be said and written about KKR's perennial inability to finish off matches from winning positions, the Royals should not be discredited for their effort, not just in this game, but overall in the season.

The Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings have made most of the positive headlines this season and lead the points table. However, with this win—their fourth on the trot—the Royals are on par with the two heavyweights on points (10), only trailing by net run rate, at the time of writing.

Known to be the Moneyball franchise of the IPL, the Royals spent the least out of the eight teams in the player auction and shelled out the most for uncapped players, per Wisden India.

Apart from captain Shane Watson, the only other superstar in their camp is former skipper and current mentor Rahul Dravid.

Their hat-trick man on Monday, Pravin Tambe, who is now also the leading wicket-taker in the season, cost less than $17,000, compared to some of the other teams' million-dollar purchases.

Their head coach, Paddy Upton, is no famous ex-international cricketer, but a former mental conditioning coach of the Indian cricket team.

During a chat with the commentators on Monday, Upton made an interesting point when he said that the team does not have any experts aiding them, but he expects all the players to bring the expertise.

Compare this to other teams, such as the defending champions Mumbai Indians, who not only have expensive celebrity players but also names such as Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Ricky Ponting, Jonty Rhodes and John Wright in the support staff assisting them.

The irony shines through in bright neon lights, considering Mumbai's current position at the bottom of the points table.

In all of Rajasthan's five wins in seven matches so far, it hasn't been one or two individuals who the entire team has piggybacked on.

What is interesting to note is that the Royals are represented by just one player each in the top 10 leading runscorers (Ajinkya Rahane, sixth) and wicket-takers (Pravin Tambe, first) in the season so far.

In spite of this, their unit has managed to carve out wins and find themselves in a healthy position on the table. Watson, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Steven Smith, Kane Richardson and James Faulkner have all chipped in with valuable contributions.

Rajasthan's style of play is clean, clever, full of heart and backed by a solid, unflagging team effort.

When two runs were required off one delivery to win a match, Steven Smith chose to tap the ball into the gap and run, rather than going for what could have been a costly slog.

On Monday, Kolkata's Andre Russell sparked a debate while bowling when he slowed down in his tracks and almost backed out of his run-up before charging back and going ahead with the delivery:

Royals skipper Shane Watson, who was the on-strike batsman at the time and was visibly upset with the umpire for not declaring it a dead-ball, chose to have his revenge not by a tit-for-tat, but via a clearly legitimate slower delivery that castled Russell when he came to bat.

In the end, Watson was to have the last laugh with three wickets in an over, topped by his team's spectacular win.

KKR may have thrown the match away on Monday, but it was Rajasthan who snapped at the gap in the door when Watson took three wickets in the 15th over. Forty-nine runs from 30 balls was still a target one expected KKR to reach with seven wickets in hand, only for the 42-year-old Tambe to enter and bamboozle the Knight Riders.

After KKR were left with just their last four wickets in hand and 45 runs to win from the last four overs, the Royals went for the kill as a pack and strangled the opposition. Never before had a team lost a game in the IPL after the openers had put on a stand of more than 100 runs. However, the Royals ensured that KKR succumbed to what was one of the most unfathomable collapses ever and bagged a welcome two points.

The Royals had put in a similarly solid display last season, reaching the knockouts, in spite of finding themselves right in the middle of the corruption scandal that erupted toward the end. Their eventual elimination would have been a bitter pill to swallow, especially for Dravid, who was playing his last competitive tournament.

However, the Royals, with the same core as last season, are back to their best, displaying supreme teamwork, astuteness and courage on the field. The memories of last season seem nothing more than an aberration.

Punjab and Chennai may be the favourites, but these boys in blue are very much alive, and roaring in their unique, inconspicuous way.

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 100 percent record is at an end in the Indian Premier League, but they have the chance to get back to winning ways when they face the Rajasthan Royals.

Venue: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Date: Saturday, April 26

Start time: 11:30 a.m. BST/2:30 p.m. local time

Live on: Sony Six, Star Sports HD, Star Sports 1 (India), ITV4 (United Kingdom), SuperSport (South Africa), OSN (UAE) SkyTV (New Zealand), Network Ten (Australia), Channel 9 (Bangladesh), Sportsnet and Omni (Canada), Sports Max (West Indies), Geo Super (Pakistan), Starhub (Singapore).

Weather: According to Weather.com, Abu Dhabi promises to be sunny and warm, with temperatures reaching 36 degrees Celsius.

Overview

The Rajasthan Royals have not had an easy time of it so far, taking just one victory and losing twice in their opening three games.

Their latest defeat against the Chennai Super Kings will be very disappointing, especially as it was only by seven runs.

Rajasthan did well to restrict the Super Kings to 140-6 from their 20 overs, an infinitely reachable target that should have been well within their grasp.

However, their batsmen were unable to make any telling contributions, with No. 10 Dhawal Kulkarni ending up as their top scorer with 28 not out from 19 balls.

The Royals reached 133 all out, just short of victory and outside the playoff places with an inferior net run-rate.

Bangalore, meanwhile, lost a close one of their own against the Kolkata Knight Riders by only two runs in what was a tense contest.

The bowling effort was led by Varun Aaron, whose 3-16 helped restrict Kolkata to 150-7 from their 20 overs.

In reply, Bangalore got very close indeed in reaching 148-5, but their two overseas seam bowlers Albie Morkel and Mitchell Starc were unable to get them over the line with the bat.

With both teams stinging after tight defeats, this game is sure to be another close one.

Team News

Rajasthan Royals (from): Shane Watson (capt), Brad Hodge, Unmukt Chand, Karun Nair, Ajinkya Rahane, Steven Smith, Rajat Bhatia, Abhishek Nayar, Ben Cutting, Kevon Cooper, Stuart Binny, James Faulkner, Dishant Yagnik, Ankush Bains, Sanju Samson, Iqbal Abdulla, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tewatia, Ankit Sharma, Pravin Tambe, Tim Southee, Dhaval Kulkarni, Kane Richardson, Vikramjeet Malik, Amit Mishra

Royal Challengers Bangalore (from): Virat Kohli (capt), Parthiv Patel, Tanmay Mishra, Yogesh Takawale, Vijay Zol, Yuvraj Singh, Varun Aaron, Ashok Dinda, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Sachin Rana, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Nic Maddinson, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ravi Rampaul

Key Players

Tim Southee

New Zealander Tim Southee may not have had the best of times in his last game for the Royals, but he remains a key operator with the new ball.

He will be looking to bounce back in this game, having gone wicketless in what was his first IPL appearance of the year.

Varun Aaron

In this year’s IPL, Varun Aaron has shown himself to be an enormously capable fast bowler good enough to profit on almost any surface.

He may not be as well-known as some of his team-mates, but Aaron has overshadowed them so far with his wickets.

The Otago Volts' unbeaten run at the Champions League T20 came to an end after masterful innings from Brad Hodge helped the Rajasthan Royals sneak a four-wicket win.

Having laboured to 139 for seven wickets from their 20 overs, it looked like Otago would struggle to defend their total.

Despite a relatively low score in Jaipur, it represented a comeback from a dire start which left them at 21 for four.

And they restricted Rajasthan skilfully when the time came to bowl, squeezing the required run rate up to almost 10 an over.

But Hodge turned the match on its head with an unbeaten 52 from just 23 balls.

The Royals go through to the semi-finals as the top side in Group A, with a perfect record.

Otago are still in pole position to join them—but Mumbai Indians can still overhaul them if they pull off a resounding victory over the winless Perth Scorchers in the final game of the group.

Here is the match scorecard, as given by the official CLT20 website:

• Bowler	O	R	W	Econ	Dots
  Ashok Menaria	1	9	0	9.00	3
  James Faulkner	4	28	0	7.00	9
  Shane Watson	3	24	1	8.00	9
  Rahul Shukla	4	23	3	5.75	12
  Kevon Cooper	4	33	2	8.25	10
  Pravin Tambe	4	17	1	4.25	12

• Fall of Wickets
  1/16 (Rutherford, 3.1 ov)	2/20 (McCullum, 3.3 ov)
  3/20 (de Boorder, 3.5 ov)	4/21 (Broom, 4.3 ov)
  5/74 (Neesham, 12.2 ov)	6/81 (ten Doeschate, 13.3 ov)
  7/120 (Butler, 18.2 ov)

• Bowler	O	R	W	Econ	Dots
  Ian Butler	3.1	37	0	11.68	6
  James McMillan	4	26	0	6.50	14
  Neil Wagner	4	33	2	8.25	11
  Nick Beard	4	23	1	5.75	9
  Jimmy Neesham	4	22	3	5.50	11

• Fall of Wickets
  1/49 (Dravid, 6.4 ov)	2/67 (Samson, 9.3 ov)
  3/71 (Watson, 11.3 ov)	4/72 (Binny, 12.1 ov)
  5/116 (Rahane, 16.6 ov)	6/130 (Faulkner, 18.2 ov)

Assessing the worth and legitimacy of four Indian teams in the ongoing Champions League Twenty20 is somewhat tricky, for it's an issue riddled with imbalances and contradictions.

Although the tournament aims to pitch the world's best T20 franchises against one another on an international stage, the complications of a skewed cricketing landscape prevent the tournament from delivering the prototypical experience.

Revenue doesn't want to bow to representational balance. Ditto for television rights. Immediate entertainment and long-term sustainability are also counterproductive forces, while much the same can be said for international reach and elite competition.

In short, the desire to ensure the tournament is an immediate success, both financially and entertainment-wise, overshadows the distant goal to conduct a pure, global event.

Ideally, the CLT20 should see the champions from all of the domestic T20 leagues automatically entered into the group stage of the tournament. In that idealistic vein (England's county fixture clash aside), the Faisalabad Wolves, Kandurata Maroons and Otago Volts should all have bypassed the now-concluded qualifying phase.

If that were the case, the leagues of India, South Africa, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies would all be represented in the tournament's group stage.

Yet instead, we're left with four Indian teams, only one of which topped their domestic competition, while two champions are discarded before the real event even begins.

For an event that is marketed as a global playoff, as a method to determine the champion among champions, it's a genuine flaw in the concept.

Undoubtedly, this is due in part to the ownership of the Champions League. With the tournament owned and run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa, it's easy to see why the CLT20 is geared towards the franchises of those administrations. The effect of that power has meant the group stage of the tournament more closely resembles cricket's equivalent of the G8 summit. 

Furthermore, the BCCI's share of the event is 50 percent, dwarfing that of the other two stakeholders, which causes many to also argue that the Champions League is merely an IPL 2.0.

However, to argue that the tournament should be switched to its best theoretical form is far too simplistic.

Part of the Champions League's appeal is that it pitches some of the game's biggest names head-to-head. Since its introduction in 2008, the franchises of the IPL have garnered significant notoriety and loyal support.

The names of the franchises are now immediately synonymous with T20 cricket and the teams' players are internationally recognised. That popularity and brand strength are what drive television-rights contracts, attendance figures, sponsorship and investment.

While it's admirable to suggest that Otago should be granted automatic qualification, it's undeniable that the Volts simply can't conjure the expansive audience that Chennai or Mumbai are capable of capturing.

As cricket continues its rapid move away from its traditions, as the game becomes increasingly thought of as business, star-power and marketing potential become ever more pertinent.

The whereabouts of that star-power further complicates the issue, for the depth in quality that exists among the various domestic leagues is as distorted as the game's power struggle. The strength of the three administrations that own and run the Champions League has resulted in the world's elite talent residing with a select, privileged few.

Consequently, the presence of four Indian teams in the current CLT20 is currently a positive. The tournament is simply more popular to a greater audience (and of higher quality) in its present incarnation.

Yet, that's not to say that the Champions League's current form is a sustainable, long-term model.

The countless domestic T20 leagues around the world have resulted in a frustrating monotony to cricket globally. The lack of differentiation between competitions across the cricketing landscape has meant that the importance of each individual match continues to wane. 

If the Champions League is to be viable as a long-term event of global significance and stature, it must greatly separate itself from the other T20 tournaments that already litter the calendar. 

Financial success must be balanced with global representation, the pressing requirement of immediate entertainment needs to be considered against long-term interest in the concept.

If football's UEFA Champions League resembled something of a Premier League with a couple of European teams thrown in, it would quickly cease to exist.

The CLT20 faces a similar conundrum in the not-so-distant future, for it runs the risk of putting together a greatest-hits compilation comprised of tracks from just a couple of albums.

It's that balance—those contradictions in the tournament's existence—that make its long-term, sustainable future a challenging one.

Rajasthan Royals made it two wins from two after holding off the Lions and sealing a 30-run win in Group A of the Champions League T20.

Put in to bat first by their South African opponents, they piled on 183 for six wickets from their 20 overs in Jaipur and then restricted the Lions to 153 for nine.

It was a measured innings from the IPL team—they started steadily via Rahul Dravid's 31 runs from 30, then upped the tempo as the innings went on through Shane Watson (33 from 24), Stuart Binny (38 from 20), and Brad Hodge (46 from 23).

The late onslaught turned a good total into an imposing one, and the Lions never really got to terms with it.

Alviro Peterson top scored with 40 from 28 balls, but there simply wasn't enough support around him to chase the target down.

Opening bowlers Vikramjeet Malik and James Faulkner both picked up a couple of wickets in economical figures, and Pravin Tambe did the rest, finishing with 4-15 to rip the heart out of the middle order.

Here is what the result does to the standings in Group A:

Here is the scorecard, as recorded by the official CLT20 website:

• Bowler	O	R	W	Econ	Dots
  Lonwabo Tsotsobe	4	26	2	6.50	13
  Sohail Tanvir	4	36	1	9.00	11
  Hardus Viljoen	4	41	0	10.25	6
  Dwaine Pretorius	4	27	2	6.75	12
  Aaron Phangiso	4	52	0	13.00	5

• Fall of Wickets
  1/21 (Rahane, 3.2 ov)	2/36 (Samson, 5.2 ov)
  3/67 (Dravid, 9.3 ov)	4/110 (Watson, 13.4 ov)
  5/145 (Binny, 16.6 ov)

• Bowler	O	R	W	Econ	Dots
  Vikramjeet Malik	3	26	2	8.66	9
  James Faulkner	4	22	2	5.50	12
  Shane Watson	4	27	1	6.75	9
  Stuart Binny	2	17	0	8.50	4
  Kevon Cooper	4	39	0	9.75	4
  Pravin Tambe	3	15	4	5.00	8

• Fall of Wickets
  1/25 (de Kock, 3.3 ov)	2/36 (van der Dussen, 4.5 ov)
  3/36 (Bavuma, 4.6 ov)	4/89 (Viljoen, 11.3 ov)
  5/101 (Symes, 13.1 ov)	6/101 (Tanvir, 13.3 ov)
  7/120 (Petersen, 15.1 ov)	8/137 (Tsolekile, 17.3 ov)
  9/152 (Pretorius, 19.5 ov)

India international Sreesanth is one of four players found guilty of various spot- and match-fixing charges after a Board of Control for Cricket in India probe reached a conclusion.

Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan and Amit Singh were all found guilty by the report, as revealed by the Indian Express newspaper.

The BCCI's disciplinary committee have met and life bans have been issued to two of the players—Sreesanth and Chavan.

#SpotFixing Breaking: Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan banned for life. Amit Singh gets 5 years, Sid Trivedi 1 year, Harmeet Singh exonerated

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) September 13, 2013

The Rajasthan Royals players hit the press towards the end of the 2013 IPL season, bringing the tournament into disrepute over accusations that three players—Chandila, Chavan and Sreesanth—had been bribed to leak an agreed amount of runs per over during a match.

The author of the report, Ravi Sawani, has said his investigations turned up no reasons to let off the players lightly. As quoted by Cricinfo, Sawani said:

There is no specific mitigating factor that would require any mercy while sanctioning the aforesaid guilty players. Sreesanth has played a number of international games and was part of the Indian national team which won the inaugural T20 World Cup, 2007 and ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011. He has received the ICC ACSU education programme on many occasions. 

In addition to the four players, Siddharth Trivedi and Harmeet Singh have also been found guilty of minor offences in the report.

Trivedi and Singh failed to report approaches from bookmakers and the knowledge that others had been approached over fixing a match. Additionally, Trivedi received a payment or gift in return for the possibility of bringing the game into disrepute.

But while Trivedi was punished with a year's suspension, Singh was exonerated.

How worse could it be? I watched the most boring match of the running season on YouTube!

Poor streaming and poor video quality—what else could one expect on a very single day? Well, criticism apart and leaving discussion of IPL on YouTube for some other time, Riding high on confidance the Royal Challengers Bangalore clinched their second consecutive and most comprehensive victory over Rajasthan Royals.

The last year runner ups finished the game one-sidedly with the biggest win of the season (10 wickets win).

The Royals batted first and ended the inning with a mere total of 92/10. I described the match as boring because not even once did RR's net run rate reach above six runs. Pathan tried with a few shots, but got run out early.

It seems RR's batting is now totally dependent on Yousuf Pathan after Greme's early exit from the tournament due to injury. The Royals certainly have to improve their batting, even Pathan could be seen struggling with short balls.

The RCB's bowling department looked quite confidant as all five bowlers bowled really well today. Steyn's return to form is also a good indication.

The only thing worth watching in the match was Praveen's hat trick (the first of the season), which gave the crowd something to cheer for. I think one of the best advantages for any team is to play in their home ground.

Kalis & Pandey seemed to be in a hurry, but finished off well.

Although RCB needs to work on their fielding, they are getting back in the rhythm after their defeat from KKR in their first match.

Honorable Mention: Jack Kalis!! Who says this format belongs to the younger generation? him being the current holder of an orange cap (max. run scorer), you can say there is no comparison to class and experience.