President Speech free essay sample

While working on this project, I have attained immense knowledge and experience has been very interesting. I am thankful to my computer teacher who has guided me and given me the outlines related to the topic and also the assistance provided by my friends. I am very thankful to my parents for their help. I therefore acknowledge the fact that without their help this project would not have been completed. Cricket has always been like a religion for this country. It is seen as more than just a game. The players are considered as demigods and literally worshipped. The Twenty20 format of cricket created history. After the Twenty20 format of cricket was introduced to the world, cricket has just been overflowing out of everyones ears, its all about cricket. Indian Premier Leagues origin is quite interesting. It all started when Lalit Modi, the Vice President of the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) envisioned the Indian Premier League. It is created along the lines of club football in Europe, specifically the English Premier League. IPL has been launched in response to the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) launched by Zee Group. The DLF Indian Premier League is an amazing occurrence in whole of cricket history. The Indian Cricket Board approved it a few months back. It is seen as a very good opportunity as far as the entertainment industry is concerned. The format of Twenty20 cricket has emerged as a phenomenon after the Twenty20 World Cup was won by India and since then people have been totally immersed into it. There is no doubt where the Indian Premier League is headed, as far as viewership and profits for  everyone associated with it is concerned. The  2012 Indian Premier League  season, abbreviated as  IPL 5  or the  IPL 2012  or the  DLF IPL 2012  (owing to title sponsorship reasons), was the fifth season of the  Indian Premier League, initiated by the  Board of Control for Cricket in India  (BCCI)  in 2007 with the  first season played in 2008. The tournament began on 4 April and ended on 27 May 2012  Kolkata Knight Riders  were the winning team, beating defending champions  Chennai Super Kings  by five wickets in the final. This season the number of teams in the league went from ten to nine with the termination of  Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Despite a slow start, IPL 5 earned a higher cumulative viewership than any previous edition of the IPL. [7]  The cumulative reach for 74 IPL 5 matches was recorded at 163 million against 162 million for 73 matches in IPL 4, and the final match had a higher reach than any previous final. This edition of the IPL has been the most competitive with 19 matches in which team won in the last over and 6 matches in which team won by a margin of less than 10 runs. Near the end of the season, the season faced various hurdles including a spot fixing case, which allegedly included 5 players caught on a sting operation carried on by a local news channel. The top three teams of the tournament (Kolkata Knight Riders,  Chennai Super Kings  and  Delhi Daredevils) will represent India in the  2012 Champions League Twenty20. The Fair Play Award was won by  Rajasthan Royals, while  Kings XI Punjab  batsman  Mandeep Singh  was named the tournaments Rising Star and Kolkata Knight Riders bowler  Sunil Narine  was Player of the Season. The final between the defending two-time champions  Chennai Super Kings  and the first-time finalists  Kolkata Knight Riders  was held at the  M. A. Chidambaram Stadium,  Chennaion May 27, 2012. While the Super Kings retained their team from the Qualifier, a hamstring injury to Knight Riders medium-pace bowler  Lakshmipathy Balaji  resulted the inclusion of  Australian  Brett Lee  and this inclusion of another foreign player required the Knight Riders to leave out their former captain and wicket-keeper batsman  Brendon McCullum  ofNew Zealand  to maintain the cap of 4 foreign players. Wicket-keeper batsman  Manvinder Bisla  was brought in to replace  Brendon McCullum. After Super Kings captain  Mahendra Singh Dhoni  won the toss and elected to bat first, openers  Murali Vijay  and  Mike Hussey  put on an opening partnership of 87 until Vijay was dismissed for 42 (from 32 balls) in the 11th over. Mike Hussey was joined by IPLs leading run scorer  Suresh Raina  and they scored at a brisk rate to reach 160 when Hussey was dismissed in the eighteenth over for 54 (from 43 balls). Suresh Raina  who had scored an imposing 73 (from 38 balls) with five  sixes  was dismissed off the last ball as Chennai reached a formidable total of 190. In reply, the Knight Riders lost their captain  Gautam Gambhir  cheaply for 2 in the first over. However, they recovered as  Manvinder Bisla  (89 from 48 balls) and  Jacques Kallis  (69 from 49 balls) added 136 for the second wicket. Soon after Bislas dismissal in the 15th over, the Knight Riders lost wickets at regular intervals and after Kallis was caught out by  Ravindra Jadeja  off the bowling of  Ben Hilfenhaus  at 18. overs, the Knight Riders required 16 runs from the last 7 balls. Shakib Al Hasan  appeared to have been caught by  Murali Vijay  off the very next delivery from Hilfenhaus but it happened to be a  no-ball  and amid the celebrations, Shakib Al Hasan had completed two runs and retained the strike and hit a  four  the very next ball. Needing 9 runs to win from the last over,   Manoj Tiwary  hit consecutive  fours  to secure victory for the Knight Riders. [31]  Manvinder Bisla was declared Man of the Match for his 89 from 48 balls which included five sixes and eight fours. Overall, 22453  runs  were scored at an  average  of 26. 2 with an overall  run rate  of 7. 82. 857  wickets  fell in the whole of the tournament. Both the amount of runs and the amount of wickets are the most that has occurred in one tournament out of all five  IPL  tournaments. During the course of this tournament, pace bowlers took 531 wickets with an average of 27. 20 and average run rate of 7. 81 whereas spinners took 241 wickets at an average of 31. 35 and average run rate of 7. 41. Overall, 6 centuries were scored. IPL 2008  and  IPL 2011  also had the same amount of  centuries. In this tournament, 96 fifties were scored, which was the most in any edition of the IPL. This edition also saw 1911 fours, 2 fours less than previous edition of  2011 Indian Premier League. 731 sixes were also scored, which was another record for a season. On the other hand, this edition had only 2 instances in which a single bowler took 5 wicket haul within his quota of 4 overs as per the rules of  Twenty20 cricket. The 2012 season of Indian Premier League (IPL) will be the fifth season of IPL since its inauguration in 2007. IPL 5 is going to start on 4th April and will continue till 27th May 2012. The finals of ipl 2012 would be held in Chepauk, the home ground of Chennai Super Kings who will also be defending their title this year. Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchisee has been terminated by BCCI. KTK has filed a petition in the court but has not received any respite from the court. IPL 2012 will be played among just nine teams this time. Daredevils sign Ross Taylor IPL 5 latest news is New Zealand Captain Ross Taylor has been traded by Rajasthan Royals to Delhi Daredevils ahead of IPL 2012. Taylor is Delhi’s second big signing of the season after they acquired Kevin Pietersen from the Deccan Chargers. Rajasthan Royals had bought Taylor for USD 1 million at the IPL Player Auction 2011. The Kiwi played 12 matches for the Royals, scoring 181 runs at an average of 36. 20 and a strike-rate of 119. 07. Levi replaces Symonds in MI Mumbai Indians, the Champions League 2011 champions, today signed T20 sensation Richard Levi as a replacement for former Australian batsman Andrew Symonds, for the fifth edition of Indian Premier League 2012. Expressing eagerness to join the ranks of Captain Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh, Levi said, â€Å"I am honoured to have Mumbai Indians management interest in my services. I have heard from friends around that Mumbai Indians is like an extended family where team shares a great bond and entrust upon youngsters. Beyond, Sachin Tendulkar has been my childhood hero and it would be exciting to share the dressing room with him. † PWI to play IPL 5 amp; Sourav Ganguly to take all Decisions as Captain? The BCCI-Sahara saga finally looks to come to some kind of conclusion, with BCCI President N. Srinivasan saying earlier in the day, that: â€Å"we do appreciate what Sahara has done. They might have felt aggrieved and did not get what they wanted from the IPL.    Finally, Subrata Roy, came out on a News Channel and confirmed, whatever may happen Pune Warriors will surely play the IPL amp; he says Sourav Ganguly will take all the final calls about it. He said, by no means, Sahara wanted the players to miss out on cricket and hence PWI team will surly play the IPL and all decisions about it, will be taken by Sourav Ganguly himself. Also, Sahara Boss confi rmed that Sourav Ganguly will be the captain of the PWI team amp; all cricketing decisions of the team will be taken by him. CHENNAI SUPER KINGS Chennai Super Kings  (often abbreviated as  CSK) is a franchise  cricket team  based in  Chennai, Tamil Nadu that plays in the  Indian Premier League. Founded in 2008, the team is currently captained by  Mahendra Singh Dhoni  and coached by  Stephen Fleming, a former New Zealand cricketer. The teams home ground is the  M. A. Chidambaram Stadium  (often referred to as  Chepauk) located in  Chennai. Chennai Super Kings is the most successful team in the  Indian Premier League  team so far. The team has won the IPL title twice in succession (2010  and  2011) and reached the play-offs every season. They were also the first Indian team to have won the  Champions League Twenty20. The leading run-scorer of the side is  Suresh Raina, while the leading wicket-taker isRavichandran Ashwin. The brand value of Chennai Super Kings in 2012 was estimated at  US$75. 13  million, making them the most valuable franchise in the IPL. The Chennai Super Kings are one of the nine teams of the  Indian Premier League. They are the most successful and consistent team in IPL history. Their captain is the current Indian skipper,Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The franchise is currently owned by  India Cements, who paid $91 million to acquire the rights to the franchise for 10 years in 2008. [10]  N. Srinivasan, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of India Cements Ltd. , is the de facto owner of the Chennai Super Kings, by means of his position within the company. He is also the President of the  BCCI. Krishnamachari Srikkanth, former captain of the  Indian cricket team  and the current Chairman of the National Selection Committee, was the brand ambassador for the franchise until the end of season three when his 3-year contract expired, and former Indian opener  V. B. Chandrasekhar  is the Chief Selector. [11]  To gather more support from local fans, actor  Vijay  and actress  Nayantarawere also appointed as ambassadors, but both have been subsequently removed. In the 2012 players auction, Super Kings bought  Ravindra Jadeja, for a whopping $2 million (9. 72  crore), the bid which turned out to be the biggest draw in the players auction for the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League. [39]  They also bought out the contract of  Tim Southee  who was signed as a replacement player in the previous season. The Super Kings started their IPL 2012 campaign with a 8-wicket loss to  Mumbai Indians  in the tournament opener in Chennai. CSK were bundled out for 112 before  Richard Levi  struck a fifty for the visiting team to setup the victory. [40]Ravindra Jadeja  came up with a brilliant all-round performance (48 off 29, 5/16) to help his team to a resounding 74-run win over  Deccan Chargers  in their second home game. In their first away game of the season, the Super Kings lost toDelhi Daredevils  in by 8 wickets after another poor show by the batsmen. Their win against  Royal Challengers Bangalore  was made possible by  Albie Morkel, who smashed 28 runs from the 19th over bowled by  Virat Kohli, and Jadeja who hit a boundary off the last ball of the match to see his side chase down the target of 206. South African  Francois du Plessis  was adjudged Man of the match for his innings of 71. At  Pune, after restricting the Super Kings to 155,Jesse Ryder  and  Steve Smith  took the  Pune Warriors  home with four balls to spare to hand a third defeat to CSK in five games. However they beat the same opponents at home by 13 runs after du Plessis and  Subramaniam Badrinathscored fifties in the first innings. du Plessis struck another half-century (73 off 52) to take Chennai to their second consecutive win. Their next game, which was supposed to be played at  Bangalore  against the Royal Challengers, was washed out without a ball bowled due to rain. They suffered a shock home defeat against  Kings XI Punjab  as they failed to chase the target of 157. KXIPs  Mandeep Singh  was awarded the Man of the match for his resilient 56. They lost another home game by 5 wickets to  Kolkata Knight Riders  whose run chase was anchored by skipper  Gautam Gambhirs half-century. Chennai got back to winning ways with a 10-run win over the struggling  Deccan Chargers  despite a belligerent knock by the Chargers vice-captain  Cameron White. The Super Kings then lost to Mumbai Indians off the last ball of the match. Dwayne Smith, who was playing his first match of the season for Mumbai, hit 14 runs off the last three balls bowled by  Ben Hilfenhaus  to take his team to a dramatic victory. The loss severely dented CSKs chances of progressing to the Playoffs. In another thrilling match, Chennai beat Rajasthan Royals by four wickets mainly due to cameos by Albie Morkel and  Anirudha Srikkanth, both scoring unbeaten six-ball 18. In their last home match of the league stage, Chennai comprehensively beat the Delhi Daredevils by nine wickets. Against Kolkata Knight Riders, needing five to win on the last ball for CSK,  Dwayne Bravo  smashed a six over long-on off the bowling of  Rajat Bhatia  to take them to a thrilling 5-wicket win. Needing a win to assure their place in the Playoffs, they lost to  Kings XI Punjabby 7 wickets at  Dharamsala  in their last league match. However Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings, both ended up with 17 points from 16 games, but the latter managed to get the fourth spot on the points table due to a better  net run rate. The team played  Mumbai Indians  in the Eliminator at  Bangalore. After losing two wickets early, Hussey and Badrinath stitched a crucial 94-run third wicket partnership to take the team to a respectable position. Then skipper  MS Dhoniand Dwayne Bravo scored 73 runs in the last five overs to set up a score of 187/5 in 20 overs. Mumbai in their run-chase got off to a flying start before a dramatic batting collapse. CSK spinners Ashwin and Jakati picked up one wicket each and bowled seven economical overs between them that proved decisive in the context of the match. CSK won the match by 38 runs and Dhoni was given the Man of the Match for his 51* (20). The win took them to the second Qualifier at  Chennai, a match against  Delhi Daredevils  to decide who plays in the final. Daredevils won the toss and put Chennai into bat and this decision backfired. Opener  Murali Vijay, who had a quiet season until then, came to his own striking a century (113 runs from 60 deliveries, 15 fours and four sixes) to take his team to a mammoth 222/5. The bowlers backed up the good batting by bowling tight line and length and picking up wickets at regular intervals. OnlyMahela Jayawardene  showed some resistance for Delhi with a knock of 55 but to see his team lose by 86 runs. The big win booked CSKs place in the final at their home ground Chennai against the  Kolkata Knight Riders. This was the fourth time in five seasons, that CSK had made it to the final of the IPL. Chennai elected to bat in the final and the batsmen backed the decision with another stellar show. After a solid opening partnership between Hussey and Vijay,Suresh Raina  played his best innings of the season scoring an unbeaten 38-ball 73. Chennai went on to make 190/3 in 20 overs. Kolkata lost the big wicket of their skipper Gambhir in the first over of the run-chase. Then  Manvinder Bisla, who was playing his first game in two weeks, took on the bowlers single-handedly and scored 89 from 48 balls. Batting at three,  Jacques Kallis  not only scored 69 (49) but also put up a crucial second-wicket stand of 136 runs with Bisla. However, the game swung CSKs way after KKR lost four wickets in as many overs. After the fall of Kallis in the 19th over, KKR needed 16 runs to win from 7 balls. KKR went on to win the game by five wickets with two balls to spare thanks to two consecutive boundaries from  Manoj Tiwary  in the last over. The Knight Riders secured their maiden IPL title with this win and Bisla won the Man of the Match award. Suresh Raina finished as Chennais leading run scorer with 441 runs and Dwayne Bravo lead the bowling tables with 14 wickets. Chennai Super Kings (CSK), founded in 2008, is owned by India Cements. Their home ground is M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, also known as Chepauk by many. The present coach of CSK is Stephen Fleming and Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the captain of team. CSK has been the most successful team in the Indian Premier League, winning the title twice. They reached the final in the first season of the IPL before losing out to Rajasthan Royals. Some of the important players of CSK are Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Doug Bollinger, George Bailey, Nuwan Kulasekara, and Michael Hussey. Squad: MS Dhoni (c amp; wk), Murali Vijay, Srikkanth Anirudha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramaniam Badrinath, George Bailey, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Ben Hilfenhaus, Michael Hussey, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Joginder Sharma, Suraj Randiv, Nuwan Kulasekara, Yo Mahesh, Albie Morkel, Abhinav Mukund, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Scott Styris, Sudeep Tyagi, Kuthethurshri Vasudevadas and Ganapathi Vignesh. DECCAN CHARGERS Deccan Chargers  known in short as  DC  is a cricket franchise based in the city of  Hyderabad  in the  Indian Premier League. They, after finishing last in the  first season  of the  IPL, won the  second season  held in  South Africa  in 2009, under the captaincy of former Australian  wicket-keeper  batsman  Adam Gilchrist. Gilchrist was the captain of the team for the first three seasons of the  IPL. From the fourth season,  Kumar Sangakkara  has been leading the team and  Cameron White  has been playing as his deputy. The team is coached by  Darren Lehmann, former Australian cricketer. The Deccan Chargers franchise is owned by the  Deccan Chronicle  Holdings Limited. The media group acquired the franchise for an amount of USD 107 million on 24 January 2008. [2]  The Chargers logo is a charging  bull. From the 2009 season, the team changed the colour of the jersey (from beige and black to sparkling silver and blue) and the logo (from gold and red to white and blue). There is no  Icon Player  for the team as the former captain  V. V. S. Laxman  rejected the offer to be an icon player in order to free funds and enable the franchise to buy amp; encourage younger players. In  2012 Indian Premier League, Chargers named new fielding coach  Trevor Penney  replacing  Mike Young. New signings amp; Tradings In the trading window which opened in December, Chargers have traded off  Kevin Pietersen,  Harmeet Singh  ,  Pragyan Ojha  to  Delhi Daredevils,  Kings XI Punjab,  Mumbai Indians  respectively. During player auctions Chargers had tried to bid  Ravindra Jadeja  for entire $2m but eventually lost in tie breaker. Later they acquired following players- Players Acquired-  Daniel Harris   $70,000  Darren Bravo   $100,000  Parthiv Patel   $650,000 After post auction team acquired following uncapped players  TP Sudhindra,  Tanmay Srivastava,  Biplab Samantray, Akshath Reddy owing to their strong domestic performances. Contracts Boughtout-  Michael Lumb,  Jaydev Shah, Ishan Malhotra Performance- The performance of the chargers was poor and finished a lowly 8th out of the 9 teams. The performance of players such as  Shikhar Dhawan,  Cameron White  and  Dale Steyn  were outstanding, but did not get much support from the other players. Their fielding was really poor resulting in many dropped catches and losing many games. After their miserable run in IPL 2012, the owners of Deccan Chargers are looking to sell all or part of the franchise and have appointed an investment banker to search for prospective buyers. Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, the owner of the franchise are considering selling their stake and are looking for buyers for the same. Now Deccan Chagers will want to start rebuilding their squad my adding Pakistan players who are eligible to play IPL from next year. Retaining their only key pace bowling spear-head Dale Steyn for the 2013 Auction will be ideal if Deccan Chargers want to build a strong team in the future. Performance Deccan Chargers failed to perform in IPL 2012, with narrow losses and continuous defeats, Deccan Chagers failed to gain any rhythm in 2012. Dale Steyn,  Cameron White, and  Shikar Dhawan  where the only players who helped Deccan win the matches. Team weakness was the bowling and fielding department, with  Ishant Sherma  being ruled out due to injury, he proved to be a big loss. Deccan ended up coming 8th place out of nine teams, most of the league they were coming last place with only 9 points on the table and winning only 4 games out of the 15 games that they played (one match was rained out). Deccan need to do many things over the next year to upgrade their team and be more strong. Deccan Chargers came into the IPL 2012 being characterised by named underdogs, and they are yet to keep that name. Deccan Chargers is owned by The Deccan Chronicles. They have three home grounds Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, ACA-VDCA Stadium and Barabati Stadium. The present coach of DC is former Australian cricketer Darren Lehmann. Kumar Sangakkara is the captain of the side and Cameron White is the vice-captain. The star players of DC are Darren Bravo, Daniel Christian, JP Duminy, Ishant Sharma, Dale Steyn, Amit Mishra and Parthiv Patel. In 2008, they came last in the points table. However, in the next season of IPL they came back strong and lifted the trophy. They haven’t been much impressive after that. In the last season, they were 7th in the league standings. Squad: Kumar Sangakkara (c amp; wk), Jean-Paul Duminy, Daniel Christian, Cameron White, Darren Bravo, Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel (wk), Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Manpreet Gony, Daniel Harris, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Bharat Chipli, Ishank Jaggi, Chris Lynn, Ashish Reddy, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Tekkami Atchuta Rao, Akash Bhandari, Kedar Devdhar, Tanmay Mishra, Veer Pratap Singh, Syed Quadri, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Akshath Reddy, Biplab Samantray,Sneha Kishore,Sunny Sohal, Tanmay Srivastava, TP Sudhindra, Rusty Theron and Arjun Yadav. RAJASTHAN ROYALS Rajasthan Royals  (Hindi:   ) is an  Indian Premier League  franchise based in the city of the  Jaipur. It is currently captained by former Indian captain  Rahul Dravid. They won the inaugural edition of the  Indian Premier League  under the captaincy of former Australian spin-legend  Shane Warne. In 2010, they were terminated by the  BCCI  for a brief period for violations in terms of agreement but were allowed to play in the league soon after the Board lost the case in the  Supreme Court. The Rajasthan Royals franchise is owned and chaired by  Manoj Badale. Other investors include  Ryan Tkalcevic,  Lachlan Murdoch,  Sir. Aditya S Chellaram  and  Suresh Chellaram. The Group acquired the franchise for $67 million. Incidentally, this was the least expensive franchise in the  Indian Premier League  and probably the least fancied team in the league at the beginning of the tournament. Bollywood actress and  Celebrity Big Brother  winner  Shilpa Shettyand her business partner (now husband) Raj Kundra paid approximately US $15. 4 million for a 11. 7% stake before the start of IPL 2 in early 2009, therefore valuing the team at $130 million. It made a pre-tax profit of $7. 5 million in 2009. Faced with the daunting task of winning all their remaining matches for having any chance of making the playoffs, Rajasthan Royals would fancy a facile victory when they take on the struggling Pune Warriors in an IPL match here on Sunday. Royals are lying sixth with 12 points from 13 matches and have to win the remaining three to keep their playoff hopes alive. On the other hand, Pune are at the eighth position with only eight points in kitty from 14 matches, close defeats against Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super kings hurting them the most. Add to this the leadership crisis that the team is facing due to an off-colour skipper Sourav Ganguly. He rested himself last night but promised to be back for this game despite team owner Subrata Roys claims that Ganguly would play a mentors role from next season. Royals, on the other hand, have no such worries and have an inspirational leader in Rahul Dravid. They have played good cricket against fancied rivals but have been guilty of frittering away opportunities. They might have the edge against the Pune but a victory here would not be enough as they will have to win all remaining three and pray that the other results also go in their favour. The hosts would like to start afresh from this juncture and make full use of every opportunity. For the past couple of matches, they could find the right team composition and earned two good victories but rain played spoilsport for them in the crucial match against Chennai Super Kings. The recent failure of Ajinkya Rahane has hurt them but Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has looked in top form. Dravid has been in good nick as well but the rest did not play to expectations at least in the last match. Shane Warne  and  Rahul Dravidare a study in contrast. One is known for his flamboyant lifestyle, outspoken ways and a devil-may-care attitude; the other is disciplined, soft-spoken and a perfect role model. For Rajasthan Royals, the most important story of IPL V could well be the transition from Warnes leadership to Dravids captaincy . In fact, for a few youngsters who have known only Warnes ways in the past four years, this could well be a culture shock. Rajasthan Royals, once again, do not boast of too many big guns, at least in the T20 format . However, they have the habit of throwing up heroes. If Yusuf Pathan, Ravinder Jadeja and Shane Watson owe most of their fame to the Royals jersey in the inaugural edition of the IPL, Johan Bothas prowess with the bat was a revelation last year. Warne had gone by his instincts in promoting Botha up the order, and it paid off handsomely. As Dravid steps into the Australian spin legends shoes, he would be aware that he is inheriting an enviable legacy. For starters, Dravid would have to pick his men carefully and not go by reputation or past record. He has coach Monty Desai and technical director Zubin Bharucha to help him out, two men who have little to show apart from their IPL stint under Warnes shadow. Talking about the players, the addition of Sreesanth in the ranks will boost the bowling, but then the pacer has been recuperating from a toe injury. He says he is fit for action, but then he hasnt played for the past six months. Expect him to be rusty. Also expect him to pull in the crowds with his maverick ways. Sreesanth could well keep Royals in the news, just like Warne did. At the other end, Shaun Tait would be hurling down some fireballs. Dravid and Botha would once again be expected to hold the batting steady. Dravid, of course, faces the biggest test. He would be hoping to do a Warne and lead this team to the podium. Or atleast finish in the top-four . Rajasthan Royals (RR) is a Rajasthan based franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL), co-owned by Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty and businessman Raj Kundra in partnership with Emerging Media. The team is currently captained by Rahul Dravid who will be coaching the team. Dravid replaces Australian spin legend Shane Warne who announced retirement from the IPL last season. The Indian legend will also be the mentor of the team. The Rajasthan franchise lead by Warne took the IPL by storm when it won the first edition in 2008 when it beat the current champions Chennai Super Kings in a thrilling final. The official theme of the team is  Halla Bol  and the official mascot is a lion named Moochu. The home of the team is Sawai Mansingh Stadium. Many domestic players can be added to the Royals squad by the selection committee in a fin al camp under the team management of Rajasthan Royals Squad: Rahul Dravid (c), Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan, Sreesanth, Shane Watson, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait, Brad Hodge, Kevon Cooper, Dinesh Chandimal, Brad Hogg, Owais Shah DELHI DAREDEVILS Delhi Daredevils  (Hindi:   ) is the  Delhi  franchise of the  Indian Premier League  in cricket. The franchise is owned by the  GMR Group. Founded in 2008, the team is currently captained by  Virender Sehwag  and coached by former South African cricketer  Eric Simons. They play all their home matches at the historic  Feroz Shah Kotla Ground. Due to the disbanding of  Kochi Tuskers Kerala, each team will play the remaining eight teams twice, once at home and once away. Therefore each team will play an extended season of 16 matches. Bollywood  superstar  Akshay Kumar  was the brand ambassador of the team during the 2008 Season but opted not to return for the 2009 season due to a busy schedule. However, Akshay was seen at a few of the teams games cheering them on. Famous  Bollywood  playback singer  Kailash Kher  has sung the team anthem Khel Front Foot Pe a. k. a. Play on the front foot or play aggressively. It is played at every Delhi Daredevils match. Delhi Daredevils launched their new anthem Munday Dilli Ke on 5 March 2012 on the social networking site  YouTube. [4] Virender Sehwag  has been accorded the icon player status in the Delhi Daredevils team and was also the captain of the side during the first two seasons. However, he resigned and passed on the leadership to his opening partnerGautam Gambhir  for the 2010 season. But after Gambhir left the team for  Kolkata Knight Riders  in the fourth edition,Sehwag was once again given the duty to captain the team. Since the start of the  IPL  in 2008 many international players such as  Glenn McGrath,  AB de Villiers,  Tillakaratne Dilshan,  David Warner,  Andrew McDonald,  Daniel Vettori,  Farveez Maharoof,  Dirk Nannes  and  Aaron Finch  have donned the cap for the Daredevils. The team also included Indian players like  Dinesh Karthik  and  Yo Mahesh. Ending the league matches in a superb and commendable way,  Delhi Daredevils  was the first team to get into the playoffs. Being in the top position in the tally table, the team played their first playoff match against second placed Kolkata Knight Riders on May 22. But when their fabulous performance was much needed in the Qualifier 1 match, the team players faltered slightly and their opponent Kolkata team took the advantage of the situation to make their way into the final. However, being in the top position, Delhi will get another opportunity to make their way into the final on May 25, 2012. Tomorrow Qualifier 2 match of the playoffs will be played between Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings, the winner of yesterday’s Eliminator match. This match will be played at MA Chidambaram Stadium,  Chennai from 8. 00 pm onwards. With a number of explosive batsmen in the team, Delhi Daredevils is strong enough to clash down the moral of the rival bowlers but unfortunately this strategy did not work last night. Throughout the group matches, the team players proved them as the most consistent team and what they have missed last night, they will surely look for grabbing that tomorrow. While analyzing the last match, there were a number of mistakes in Shewag’s team. Firstly, for low and slow wicket, this team appeared in the cricket field with only four medium pacers and one spinner. Secondly, the final order of eleven players needed a revision when they lost some early wickets. Ross Taylor should have come up at 5 and later Jayawardena admitted this mistake. However, after giving such an impressive performance throughout the league, along with all IPL viewers, Delhi boys are also hoping to play in the final and for that they have to overcome all the previous mistakes in tomorrow’s match to wipe out Chennai Super kings from this IPL 2012. Captain Virender Shewag and David Warner make a powerful opening partnership to raise fire in the field and they have to do so tomorrow. Chennai bowlers will for these two big wickets followed by middle order batsmen, Jayawardena, Ojha, Taylor and Negi. At time Pathan appears as an explosive all-rounder to give a big boost to the team score. To ensure their position in the final, Delhi batsmen have to make a 200+ challenging score against Chennai. On the other hand, Morne Morkel is the gem of the bowling squad. He is one of the leading wicket takers in this season with 25 wickets from 16 league matches. He along with Negi, Yadav and Pathan has to do the rest of the work by taking regular wickets. If all these factors work properly, then it is very tough to restrict Delhi. Also Delhi is a favorite tomorrow because of its formidable performance level and the consistency that this team maintained throughout the season. Contrary to this prediction, the western bookies predicted that there is 47% chance for Delhi to get a victory. Bookies such as William Hill, Paf, Bwin and Bet365 are offering 1/1 odds whereas Bet-at-home is offering 4/5 on a Delhi victory. Their home ground is Feroz Shah Kotla. The present coach of Delhi is Eric Simons and the captain is Indian opener Virender Sehwag. The star players of the side are Irfan Pathan, Mahela Jayawardene, Kevin Pietersen, Ross Taylor, David Warner, Umesh Yadav, Matthew Wade, Varun Aaron, and Ajit Agarkar apart from Sehwag. DD has been consistent in their performance. They reached semi-finals in the first two seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, they started declining since the third season of IPL. They managed to win only four out of 14 matches in the last IPL season. Squad: Virender Sehwag (c), David Warner, Venugopal Rao, Aaron Finch, Mahela Jayawardene, Glenn Maxwell, Varun Aaron, Ajit Agarkar, Doug Bracewell,   Naman Ojha, Andre Russell, Aavishkar Salvi, Ross Taylor, Roelof van der Merwe, Vikas Mishra,   Tejashwi Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Manprit Juneja, Puneet Bisht, Robin Bist, Gulam Bodi and Unmukt Chand. PUNE WARRIORS Pune Warriors India  is a franchise  cricket team  that plays in the  Indian Premier League (IPL)  representing the city of  Pune,  Maharashtra. The team is one of two new franchisees added to the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the  2011 season, alongside the  Kochi Tuskers Kerala. On 21 March 2010, Sahara Adventure Sports Limited made the winning bid of $370 million (approximately Rs 1900 crore) for the Pune franchise. The bid is the highest bid by any company in the short history of IPL. Sourav Ganguly,the former captain of Pune warriors India, serves as the mentor of the team. Former South African pacer  Allan Donald  is the bowling coach of the team. The teams home ground is the newly-constructed  Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium  in Pune. During the 2010 franchise auction for two new  Indian Premier League  teams,  Subrata Roy  of  Sahara Group  purchased the Pune IPL team. Pune and Kochi joined the current eight teams from the fourth season of IPL to be held in 2011. On March 22, 2010 Sahara group bought Pune IPL team for  1,702 crore. The  Videocon  Group lost the bid for the Pune IPL Team. The team logo has a spear wielding warrior riding a stallion,with the teams name next to it. [3]  The team colour is Turquoise blue and Silver [2012 Season]. .[4]  They kept their name Sahara Pune Warriors but later changed it to Pune Warriors India . TVS Motors  is the principal sponsor for the Pune Warriors India who have also signed  Adidas  as their official apparel sponsor for the upcoming season of  IPL.