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Kings XI Punjab were the semi-finalists in IPL T20 season 1 but this year they failed to impress with two consecutive losses in their first two matches. Rain was also not favorable and Preity Zinta’s team had matches affected by rain too. Bangalore Royal Challengers was not very impressive too under new captain Kevin Pietersen with two consecutive losses although they won their first match against Rajasthan Royals. Today’s 11th Match of IPL T20 season 2 was important for both sides. Pietersen won the toss and decided to bat but he was himself unimpressive once again and went off for a duck. However, some good batting by Jacques Kallis (62 off 46 balls), Ross Taylor (35 off 22 balls) and Jesse Ryder (32 off 21 balls) helped the Challengers to reach a total of 168/9 in 20 overs. Yusuf Abdulla and Irfan Pathan had the best bowling statistics for the Kings with 4/31 and 3/35 respectively. The Kings started their batting without taking much risks and Ravi Bopara (84 off 59 balls) steered the Kings XI Punjab to victory with valuable contributions from Yuvraj Singh (30 off 17 balls) and Kumar Sangakkara (26 off 18 balls) with one over to spare. Ravi Bopara was awarded the Man of the Match for his 84 runs off 59 balls.

Full Scorecard

Bangalore Royal Challengers

Batsmen Status Runs Balls 4s 6s S.Rate
Jesse Ryder b Yusuf Abdulla 32 21 6 0 152.38
Robin Uthappa (W) c Yuvraj Singh b Irfan Pathan 0 1 0 0 0
Jacques Kallis c Mahela Jayawardena b Yusuf Abdulla 62 46 5 2 134.78
Kevin Pietersen (C) c Karan Goel b Yusuf Abdulla 0 2 0 0 0
Rahul Dravid c VRV Singh b Piyush Chawla 10 13 0 0 76.92
Ross Taylor c Mahela Jayawardena b Yusuf Abdulla 35 22 4 2 159.09
Virat Kohli c Ravi Bopara b VRV Singh 2 3 0 0 66.67
Praveen Kumar lbw b Irfan Pathan 13 7 0 1 185.71
Vinay Kumar not out 1 1 0 0 100
Pankaj Singh b Irfan Pathan 0 1 0 0 0
Anil Kumble not out 5 3 1 0 166.67
Extras: b – 4, w – 3, nb – 0, lb – 1 8
Total: (168 for 9 wickets in 20.0 overs) 168 Run Rate: 8.4

Fall of Wickets1-6 (Robin Uthappa, 1.1), 2-48 (Jesse Ryder, 5.2), 3-48 (Kevin Pietersen, 5.4), 4-73 (Rahul Dravid, 10.3), 5-134 (Jacques Kallis, 16.3), 6-142 (Virat Kohli, 17.4), 7-159 (Ross Taylor, 18.4), 8-162 (Praveen Kumar, 19.1), 9-162 (Pankaj Singh, 19.2)

Bowling (Mohali)Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
Ranadeb Bose 2 0 24 0 0 0 12
Irfan Pathan 4 0 35 3 0 0 8.75
Yusuf Abdulla 4 0 31 4 0 3 7.75
Piyush Chawla 4 0 19 1 0 0 4.75
Yuvraj Singh 3 0 28 0 0 0 9.33
Ravi Bopara 1 0 4 0 0 0 4
VRV Singh 2 0 22 1 0 0 11

Power Play
Power Play 1 Overs: 1-6

Kings XI Punjab

Batsmen Status Runs Balls 4s 6s S.Rate
Ravi Bopara c Jesse Ryder b Jacques Kallis 84 59 4 5 142.37
Karan Goel run out (Vinay Kumar) 19 19 1 0 100
Kumar Sangakkara (W) c Pankaj Singh b Anil Kumble 26 18 2 1 144.44
Yuvraj Singh (C) not out 30 17 3 1 176.47
Mahela Jayawardena not out 1 1 0 0 100
Irfan Pathan
Wilkin Mota
Piyush Chawla
VRV Singh
Ranadeb Bose
Yusuf Abdulla
Extras: b – 1, w – 9, nb – 0, lb – 3 13
Total: (173 for 3 wickets in 19.0 overs) 173 Run Rate: 9.11

Fall of Wickets1-52 (Karan Goel, 6.4), 2-92 (Kumar Sangakkara, 12.3), 3-158 (Ravi Bopara, 18.1)

Bowling (Bangalore)Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
Praveen Kumar 4 0 36 0 0 1 9
Pankaj Singh 2 0 20 0 0 2 10
Jacques Kallis 4 0 51 1 0 2 12.75
Vinay Kumar 1 0 4 0 0 0 4
Kevin Pietersen 2 0 16 0 0 0 8
Anil Kumble 4 0 19 1 0 0 4.75
Jesse Ryder 2 0 23 0 0 0 11.5

Power Play
Power Play 1 Overs: 1-6

Bollywood and Hollywood stars will attend the opening ceremony of the second season of IPL T20 if reports are to be believed. Hollywood actors Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman are likely to grace the opening ceremony on April 18 at Newlands alongside IPL franchise owners and Bollywood stars Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty. Last year’s runner-up Chennai Super Kings will play the opening match against Mumbai Indians while IPL season 1 winner Rajasthan Royals will take the challenge of Bangalore Royal Challengers in the second match subsequently on the same venue.

The match tickets for the opening for the opening matches will go on sale from April 3 and it has been kept modest and in terms with the 2007 ICC T20 Cricket World Cup. The tickets will start from Rand 50 for children, Rand 100 for a grass ticket and upto Rand 200 for a seat (1 South African Rand ~ 5.5 Indian National Rupees). According to Stadium Authorities, there is major interest amongst the public for the matches and so the ticket prices have been kept affordable.

To increase the maximum occupancy of stadiums the IPL schedule has been organized in such a way that the maximum amount of matches are played in Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg which are cities with the largest Indian population. Out of the 56 games to be played in IPL T20 season 2, 33 games has been staged in these three venues.

Let us wait for the next two weeks to see if the South African people likes the mix dose of cricket, Bollywood, Hollywood and cheerleaders. But going by the way the organizers are working on the event, it might become a success this year too.