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Entertaining fare on the cards

Rakesh Rao

Chennai’s formidable batting vs. Punjab’s quality attack

— Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

READY FOR THE BATTLE: Kings XI Punjab’s S. Sreesanth and V.R.V. Singh during a training session at Mohali on Friday.

MOHALI: In the past, one-day benefit matches in India brought together a number of leading Indian and overseas cricketers. A retired player ran around tirelessly to request cricketers, past and present, to come to his aid. The on-field atmosphere was none-too-serious. Some play-acting was permitted and the crowd loved it.

The onus was on the batsmen to hit the ball out of the park. In the end, it did not really matter which team won as long as the crowd was happy with the quality of hitting on view. Entertainment, not intensity, was the chief attraction.

Over the next 44 days of the inaugural DLF Indian Premier League, the new-generation cricket-watchers will be treated to cricket of a similar nature. The role of a retired cricketer is now played by the BCCI. And the crowd is again likely to go back happy talking about the quality of hitting. Once again, entertainment shall hold the key.

Paid to perform

The IPL, cricket’s answer to football’s EPL and the basketball’s NBA, brings together some of the biggest names. All paid to perform. Perform a role assigned to them. Intense performances, if any, are sure to catch the eye.

However, so far, the spectators at all venues appear sceptical. The ticket sales are reportedly, not surprisingly, low.

When Kings XI Punjab opens its campaign against Chennai Super Kings at home, it will be difficult to pick the favourite. The host chose to practice from 5 p.m., which is also the starting time for its game on Saturday. Chennai had a brief work-out before noon and waited for its skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to join.

Chennai coach Kepler Wessels reiterated that the team had grown “as a unit” with each practice session but declined to name the likely composition of the team for the opener.

The sides are well balanced but much depends on the composition of the playing XI. Since the rules stipulate a maximum of four overseas players and make it mandatory to include four under-22 players in the XI, it will be a huge challenge for the teams’ think-tank to arrive at a winning combination.

With curator Daljit Singh promising a “good pitch” where 160 could be scored, and even chased, batsmen hold the key. The 5 p.m. start also means that only the team chasing will be batting under floodlights. “This could well give a slight advantage to the team batting first,” said Daljit.

Intriguing battles

It will be interesting to see Punjab’s Brett Lee bowling to Matthew Hayden or Chennai’s Muttiah Muralitharan plotting the downfall of Mahela Jayawardene. The match also gives Yuvraj Singh a chance to showcase his leadership qualities before a global audience.

Chennai’s formidable batting and Punjab’s quality attack makes for an intriguing contest.

The teams (from):

Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt.), Stephen Fleming, Jacob Oram, Michael Hussey, Matthew Hayden, Muttiah Muralitharan, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, Joginder Sharma, S. Vidyut, S. Anirudha, R. Ashwin, P. Amarnath, Shadab Jakati, K.B. Arun Karthick, S. Badrinath and Manpreet Gony.

Kings XI Punjab: Yuvraj Singh (Capt.), Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kyle Mills, Shaun Marsh, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, S. Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, James Hopes, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Luke Pomersbach, Ajitesh Argal, Pankaj Dharmani, Rishi Dhawan, Karan Goel, Uday Kaul, Sahil Kukreja, Wilkin Mota, Nitin Saini, V. R. V. Singh, Sunny Sohal and Tanmay Srivastava.

Match begins at 5 p.m.

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