Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals is not in any great shape either, despite their victory against Kings XI Punjab – but they seem to be getting better alright.

A 9-wicket mauling by Virender Sehwag-led Delhi Daredevils at home ground has raised serious concerns about the cohesiveness of VVS Laxman’s talented bunch, after an initial rap in a shocker of pitch in Eden Gardens by Kolkata Knight Riders.

Nothing has worked so far for the famed Deccan Chargers, who were touted as the most formidable side by bookies, who would have surely changed the odds.

In fact odds are changing fast as the tournament progresses. Chennai Super Kings now emerges as top contenders along with Kolkata Knight Riders, with Delhi Daredevils, Bangalore Royal Challengers and Rajasthan Royals inching forward and Kings XI and Deccan Chargers slipping.

Mumbai Indians would be rated on the basis of their performance against Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday.

Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Venugopala Rao, VVS Laxman and big hitter Shahid Afridi were all failures so far for Deccan Chargers.

There were much expectations about the Aussies in particular in Deccan Chargers, with Andrew Symonds fetching the second highest bid of $1.35 million by the hyderabad franchise. Symonds went for 30 runs in an over in a Sehwag rampage and failed with the bat too. All of Adam Gilchrist’s experience did not help the Chargers either in their match against Delhi.

There was no devil in the Rajiv Gandhi stadium as Delhi Darevils captain Sehwag showed and hence Deccan Chargers have no one else to blame than their batting maestros for their abject failure to put up a big score.

While this may not necessarily be a verdict on the team, it requires tremendous grit to come back as a team, which the Deccan Chargers are capable of. Have the defeats affected the Hyderabad team for the worse, or do the battle-scarred veterans pull up their socks in the Deccan Chargers vs Rajasthan Royals match, we will know soon enough.

Shahid Afridi can be pardoned for the match against Delhi Daredevils was his first match, but the burden of expectations would weigh against him as Deccan Chargers take on Rajasthan Royals led by wizard of spin Shane Warne.

There are no demons in the Hyderabad wicket but Shane Warne can turn the ball and do all the tricks in any surface.

Deccan Chargers would have to earmark someone to have a go at him and turn his attention from the field to his own bowling and unsettle Rajasthan Royals. That is easier said than done, but Shahid Afridi might relish taking up that mammoth challenge.

Big hitting Aussie Shane Watson forced bookies to rewrite their priorities after an initial set back as he anchored an brilliant win for his team against the fancied Kings XI Punjab at Sawai Mansingh Stadium the other day.

Skipper Shane Warne would expect a repeat effort, but India discard Mohammad Kaif also has to fire for his team.

Afridi’s Pak team mate Kamran Akmal, now playing for Rajasthan Royals,  announced his intentions in his first match but needs to carry on and bring in some unorthodox shots to unsettle the Deccan Chargers.

Yusuf Pathan is another Rajasthan Royals batsman who has lived dangerously, but building partnerships also is vital in some match scenarios even if that means your strike rate dips. Playing all the 20 overs is vital as VVS Laxman himself admitted after the encounter with Kolkata Knight Riders.

Despite the scars of two successive defeats, Deccan Chargers are the better team in this tussle. Only that they have to bury their past shame, draw upon their collective experience and hit Rajasthan Royals hard. Deccan Chargers are still considered favourites purely on the merit of the treasure trove of talent on their ranks. Only that they have to fire.

Deccan Chargers Team
VVS Laxman, Andrew Symonds, RP Singh, Rohit Sharma, Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs, Chaminda Vaas, Scott Styris
Chamara Silva.
Rajasthan Royals Team
Mohammad Kaif,Yusuf Pathan,Shane Warne,Munaf Patel,Younis Khan, Justin Langer, Kamran Akmal, Shane Watson, Sohail Tanvir, Morne Morkel, Graeme Smith.

Since the match would be played in Hyderabad, the Deccan Chargers could well have the so-called home advantage, playing in front of the home crowd. The most important thing to be noted here is the presence of Shahid Afridi, the explosive batsman from Pakistan joining the side for tomorrow’s match against the Delhi Daredevils.

The batting line-up of Deccan Chargers looks good on paper consisting of Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Y Venugopal Rao, Rohit Sharma and Ranji players D B Ravi Teja and Kalyan Krishna. Though captain VVS Laxman is not exactly Twenty20 material, one can expect him to score some runs, if he comes to bat in the middle rather than open the batting.

Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds, the Aussie batsmen, are both aggressive and can well score some useful runs for the team. Considering the astronomical figure he got during the auction, Symonds would be readying up to live up to the expectations laid upon him.

Another batsman that could come to the rescue of Deccan Chargers is Shahid Afridi, the explosive Pakistani batsman who can take the match away from the opponents anytime.

Even the bowling line up of Deccan Chargers is quite strong with the likes of  Scott Styris, Chaminda Vaas, R P Singh and the locay boy Pragyan Ojha, who was instrumental in his team’s efforts against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Delhi Daredevils, the Delhi franchisee of the DLF IPL and being led by Virender Sehwag, will have A B de Villiers, Shoaib Malik, Mohammed Asif, Tillakratne Dilshan and Abdul Razzak as the main batters.

The final teams for the game will be selected from:

Deccan Chargers: VVS Laxman (Captain), Scott Styris, Adam Gilchrist (WK), H Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, Sanjay Bangar, Rohit Sharma, Chamara Silva, Y Venugopal Rao, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Haldhar Das (wk), D Kalyan Krishna, Pragyan Ojha, DB Raviteja, PM Sarvesh Kumar, R P Singh, P Vijay Kumar and Arjun Yadav. Coach: Robin Singh

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (Captain), Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwari, Daniel Vettori, Shoaib Malik, Dinesh Kartik, Glenn McGrath, Mohammed Asif, Ferveez Meharoof, Pradeep Sangwan, Brett Geeves, Rajat Bhatia, Shikar Dhawan, Yo Mahesh, Tillakratne Dilshad, Abdul Razzak, Mithun Manhas, Mayank Tehlan, Amit Mishra, Tejaswi Yadav, A B de Villiers and Yogesh Nagar. Coach: Greg Shipperd.

In order to ensure that a better wicket is prepared for the coming matches, the pitch would be inspected by the IPL’s technical committee and the Cricket Association of Bengal. The pitch was difficult to play for the batsman mainly because of the unexpected rising and falling deliveries from the pacemen.

The pitch also saw Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, the captains of Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers respectively, getting hurt from the rising deliveries.

VVS Laxman Laxman said the erratic behaviour of the Eden Gardens pitch was shocking. “”This sort of wicket would not at all help Twenty20 or for that matter cricket in general,” he said.

Much to the surprise of the Kolkata Knight Riders team members, the Eden Gardens curator apologised to them for preparing such an erratic pitch. After the match, pitch curator Kalyan Mitra went to the Kolkata Knight Riders dressing room and apologised to the team members.

Ricky Ponting, Kolkata Knight Riders batsman, said, “The curator came to our dressing room after the match and apologised to all of us. He has promised a better wicket for our next match as also the five other games the team will play at the Eden later in the tournament.”

Efforts are also on to bring in a pitch specialist from Australia.  Eden Gardens will host its next match on April 29 when it will see Kolkata Knight Riders, the Kolkata franchisee of the DLF IPL being led by Saurav Ganguly and owned by Bollywood badshah Shah Rukh Khan, lock horns with Mumbai Indians, the Mumbai franchisee of DLF IPL being led by Sachin Tendulkar and owned by industrialist Mukesh Ambani.

At the moment, Kolkata Knight Riders is riding high with two wins from two matches and is leading the DLF IPL points table.

The logo and anthem of Deccan Chargers wwre also revealed. The logo would be a charging bull. “The Bull signifies strength, power and aggression,” said J. Krishnan, president and CEO of Deccan Chargers.

During the unveiling function, VVS laxman, captain of Deccan Chargers, expressed confidence that his team is a balanced side.

The team also includes foreign players Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs (South Africa) Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) Scott Styris, Chaminda Vaas ad Nuwan Zoysa (Sri Lanka).
Indian team’s fielding coach Robin Singh will be the coach of Deccan Chargers.

Robin Singh would be assisted by Kawaljit Singh, Shishir Hattangadi and Vijay Mohan Raj.

The Deccan Chargers Hyderabad IPL team is owned by Deccan Chronicle newspaper.

The official Deccan Chargers website can be viewed here.

Mumbai team was the top grosser with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, the country’s top private firm, pumping in a record $111.9 to win team ownership. Bangalore team went to Vijay Mallya’s UB Group for $106 million. Apart from this, the team owners spent more than $36 million to buy 75 international stars.

Vivian Richards, who is associated with Sir Allen Stanford, the promoter of Twenty20 in the Carribean, said such competitions make players financially secure. Vivian Richards also said Aussie player Andrew Symonds’ (Hyderabad team) massive valuation of $1.35 million (Rs 5.5 crore) was fair enough.

Hyderabad captain VVS Laxman has also backed Andrew Symonds, describing the Aussie as a big asset to the team and a match winner.

VS Laxman
Adam Gilchrist (wk)
Herschelle Gibbs
Shahid Afridi
Andrew Symonds
Rohit Sharma
Chamara Silva
Rudra Pratap Singh
Scott Styris
Chaminda Vaas
Nuwan Zoysa