IPL 5 – Pune Warriors vs Rajasthan Royals – Match Preview
In the 52nd match of the fifth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Pune Warriors will take on Rajasthan Royals today at the Subrata http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Andrew-Symonds-c44611 Sahara Stadium, Pune.
The home team started the tournament in an impressive fashion as it won three out of the first four encounters. Just when cricket analysts were predicting a good season for the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sourav-Chandidas-Ganguly-c90746 and company lost seven out of their next eight fixtures.
As a result, the franchise is reeling at number eight on the points table, only ahead of Deccan. Effectively, Pune does not hold any chance to qualify for the next round of the event.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/R-Dravid-c2229 and his men started the tournament efficiently. The Royals lost their way in the middle but came up with a
massive victory over Kings XI Punjab in their last game, which must have boosted their confidence and morale to make it to the last four of this season. Rajasthan is currently at number six in the points table with 10 points after 11 games. However, a win
today will take the Royals to the fourth position.
The arrival of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Punjab-c833 as he scored 36
crucial runs at an amazing strike-rate and picked up a couple of important scalps.
Some of the other foreign players of the Royals, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Brad-Hodge-c1184 do not have a great stature in international cricket but they have been extremely efficient in the current season and have played a huge role in their team’s success. This is the
reason why, Royals have emerged as a force to reckon with this year, even though no cricket pundit was giving them a chance before the tournament commenced.
As Dravid said, "We have shown in this competition that we are a team to be taken seriously even though not many people would have given us a chance at the start."
On the other side of the coin, it is too late for Pune but the franchise will be looking to restore some pride in the remainder of the event. The likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JD-Ryder-c1679 have looked threatening at times but they
failed to produce enough match-winning efforts.
Ganguly has been heavily criticized in the tournament and there are calls for his retirement. The left-handed batsman surely brings immense experience to the team but he has gone past his best in competitive cricket. However, ‘Dada’ is a fighter and one
can expect a big innings from him as he is in the line of fire.
Today’s fixture is going to be a battle between two former captains of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, Dravid and Ganguly. Both the veterans will be looking to prove a point in the match. Rajasthan will start the match as favourites and will also take this as a do or die encounter,
if they want to keep their hopes alive in the tournament.
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