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Kamran Khan has been in news for the past few days after he bowled an excellent yorker in the warm up match against Rajasthan Royals. He was also praised by his captain Shane Warne who named him the tornado and said he is a pace sensation to watch out in this IPL. Kamran Khan has been on the rise since his selection in the IPL team. He has never played a first class match and he was picked up by the Royals after they saw his bowling in a t20 match in Mumbai. However, Kamran has had to pass through a lot of difficulties before he reached even the IPL. The rookie pacer from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, India was struggling with poverty when the IPL chance came along. He economic conditions was such that he used to sleep on railway platforms as he did not have money to book hotel rooms. He just had one pair of clothes and torn shoes for his trials and he often bowled with an empty stomach or just a meal of tea and biscuits. But IPL has changed a lot for the 18 year old talent Kamran Khan. He was signed up for $24,000 and Kamran Khan is happy with the contract. However, he said that he wished that the money would have come a bit earlier as he would not had to lose his mother two years ago. Kamran says that after sleeping in railway stations he felt quite uncomfortable sleeping in five star hotels of South Africa on his first night.

The pacer has been praised by his captain and coach Shane Warne who said that Kamran bowls at 140 plus and with some guidance Kamran will be able to develop into a great bowler in the future. Kamran is overwhelmed by is success in the last few weeks and everybody is supporting him too. But let us hope that he does not leave his concentration and becomes a very find for India in the long term.

Rajasthan Royals had a warm up match against Cape Cobras today named “Clash of the Champions” . Cape Cobras are the South African domestic T20 champions and Rajasthan Royals were the winners of IPL season 1 and so it was marketed as the clash of the the winners. The match started interestingly with Cape Cobras winning the toss and deciding to bat. The Rajasthan Royals team was mainly filled with the Indian domestic players of Rajasthan Royals. The Indian pacers of Rajasthan Royals started out well with Amit Singh, Trivedi and Kamran Khan. Kamran Khan was more prominent of the lot although he bowled only a single over giving only one run and taking a wicket. His pace was good and he was also extracting good swing from the wicket. The Cobras struggled against the Indian pacers and were 65/5 after 11.5 overs. But then their batsmen started hitting well and the Cobras ended at a respectable score of 142/8 in their allotted 20 overs.

The Rajasthan Royals batsmen were quite impressive initially with Victorian batsman Rob Quiney (34 off 22 balls) hitting the Cobras for fours and sixes. But then the rest of the Royals batsmen got out cheaply with some very good bowling and fielding performance by the Cobras. Shane Warne (21 off 19 balls) tried to save the innings but it was too late. At last they got all out in 19 overs for 115 runs and the Cobras won the match by 27 runs.

However, the positives of the game for Rajasthan Royals was that their international players looked in good from with Quiney, Warne and Henderson looking good. The other good thing was the Indian bowlers in RR squad bowled some good spells too especially Kamran Khan and Amit Singh.

The Rajasthan Royals squad are looking a good unit though they do not look as powerful as the other squads and I doubt if they would be able to retain their title this year. Let us hope that the Rajasthan Royals squad performs well when they play their full side in the IPL T20 season 2.

Bollywood actress and Rajasthan Royal’s co-owner Shilpa Shetty offered her prayers at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India for the success of Rajasthan Royal’s in IPL 2. Rajashtan Royals are the defending IPL champions after they won the first season under Shane Warne’s captaincy. Shipla and her boyfriend Raj Kundra became co-owners of the Rajashtan Royals franchisee this year and has been on extensive promotion for their team. Shilpa was accompanied by Jitender, Prem Chopra and Poonam Dhillon while she went to Golden Temple yesterday. The Rajashan Royals play a warm up game today against South African T20 champions Cobras today before they face Bangalore Royal Challengers on April 18.

It is also noticeable that Rajasthan Royals is the only IPL team without a single local player this year. There is not a single player from the state of Rajasthan this year although they have seven players from Gujarat. Most IPL teams did not take their full team to South Africa to reduce costs and the Royals also had to leave their two local players, Gajendra Singh and Mohammad Arif. But it hardly matters in regards to the team and let us hope that Shilpa’s prayers are answered and Rajasthan Royals have another great IPL season this year.

Note: Rajasthan Royals vs Cobras match will be telecast on Set Max at 17.45 IST.

Kings XI captain Yuvraj Singh said that he believes that IPL T20 season 2 will be bigger than last year. He said that the Indian fan base in South Africa is huge and he expects that they will turn out in the games to support their teams. He also said that he expects that the Punjabi community in South Africa will also support his team Kings XI Punjab. Moreover there will be Indians and other people flying from India and other countries to South Africa to watch the matches. And the South African local cricket fans will also enjoy the matches.

Kings XI coach Tom Moody also echoed similar feelings and said that IPL 2 will be more competitive than the first season. He said that all the sides are very well balanced with quality players in each side and it is difficult to say anybody is better than the other. He believes that there will be a very tough competition in the IPL this year. He said that the South African public will see excellent cricket with the best cricketers worldwide. However, he also said that he personally feels that Delhi Daredevils is one of King XI’s biggest threats. The Daredevils have very good Indian players alongside powerful international players and he said that there would be a tough game when Kings XI Punjab faces Delhi Daredevils on April 18.

Hope that both their words turn out to be true and IPL season 2 becomes a huge success this year too.