IPL - Kolkatta KnightRiders v Rajasthan Royals

Match on as we speak... Some strong aussie, indian(obivously) and pakistani presence !!

Toss: Shane Warne has won the toss and Rajasthan Royals will bat first. Not surprising. The batsmen should enjoy this surface, though Sourav Ganguly felt his seamers should have some assistance early on. There could be bounce, but little seam movement.

Teams: No Dimitri Mascarenhas for the Royals, after his hyped arrival. Dinesh Salunkhe makes way for Swapnil Asnodkar, the batsman from Goa. Salman Butt, Brad Hodge and Umar Gul are the notable inclusions for Kolkata. Ponting and McCullum have flown back so two changes were forced. In a sense, the tournament starts a new phase from today, with a few Australians and New Zealanders leaving to play for their respective countries. We'll see how the teams cope.

Kolkata: 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Salman Butt, 3 Brad Hodge, 4 David Hussey, 5 Debabrata Das, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Laxmi Ratan Shukla, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda.

Rajasthan 1 Swapnil Asnodkar, 2 Graeme Smith, 3 Yusuf Pathan, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Mahesh Rawat (wk), 8 Shane Warne (capt), 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel.


3.25 local time: 'allo 'allo and welcome to Cricinfo's coverage of the 18th match of the IPL. Seems more like the 38th. Anyway, the action shifts to Jaipur now as Rajasthan Royals take on Kolkata Knight Riders. I'm Kanishkaa Balachandran, your companion through this game. Sajan Nair takes over the scoring. This is the first game of the Thursday double-bill. Deccan Chargers v Kings XI Punjab follows later. Much fun.

News of the toss, teams and other chatter will follow shortly. You might want to read the preview by Ashok Ganguly here. And by the way, it's baking at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium - 45 degrees! Madness. Ice vests would come in handy. I've never visited Rajasthan (though I'd love to), but I certainly wouldn't plan my trip at this time of the year.

106 for 3 wickets off 11.3 overs

Sharma, Agarkar and Gul with 1 wicket each so far

1st sign of madness - talking to yourself...

Rodney Marsh's son, Stuart i think, did well in the other ipl game today between Punjabis and Deccans.. he got about 86 notout in his debut ipl game!

maXXed wrote:1st sign of madness - talking to yourself...

oih gandoo maxxed

i wonder why not many people involved/follow ipl..

lollll@maj.. some entertainment at last!

Akhtar finally made it to the KKR.. should be good to see him finish his career off in style.. see wot happens