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Match facts

Saturday April 28, Chennai
Start time 1600 (1030 GMT)Suresh Raina hasn’t been in form for Chennai Super Kings this season•AFP

Big Picture

The last time Kings XI Punjab were in Chennai, in 2010, the match was tied and Kings XI won in the Super Over. They did not make the trip in 2011 because of the tournament’s format. This year, they desperately need points in Chennai, to keep up with the competition.Kings XI won their last two away games, in Mumbai and Kolkata, and a narrow defeat in their previous game at home should not shadow their improved performance. Chennai Super Kings, however, are a tough team to beat at home, with an 18-7 win-loss record at Chepauk.For Kings XI, their batting performance has improved even though Adam Gilchrist missed the last three games because of torn hamstrings. They managed 168, 164 and 163 in those games, while in the previous two they made only 124 and 134. Mandeep Singh and Nitin Saini have given Kings XI two of their best three opening partnerships this season and that has allowed Shaun Marsh and David Hussey to play freely in the middle order. Kings XI’s bowling has been less impressive, with Praveen Kumar struggling for success. He’s taken only two wickets in eight games, despite a green Mohali pitch.Super Kings have four wins, but their rise o No. 3 has largely gone unnoticed due to the absence of noticeable performances apart from Faf fu Plessis and Albie Morkel. S Badrinath’s move to the opening slot has stabilised the top order, but the impetus hasn’t come from IPL stalwarts such as Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni, who have low strike-rates this season. For Dhoni, R Ashwin’s lack of wickets has been another area of concern. Unlike other seasons, Super Kings have not looked fluent.

Form guide

(most recent first)
Chennai Super Kings: NRWWLW (NR – no result)
Kings XI Punjab: LWLLW

Players to watch

Parvinder Awana picked up nine wickets in the last three games and leapfrogged Piyush Chawla as the leading wicket-taker for Kings XI. Awana has the ability to surprise batsmen with his pace. He bowls in the mid 130 kph but can ramp it up to the 140s.This season has been an extended struggle for Suresh Raina who has scored only 138 runs in seven innings for Super Kings. However, as IPL’s leading run-getter, Raina has the talent to come good at any moment. He has batted at No. 3, where he has enough time to play himself into form, and he could be one innings away from getting there.

Stats and trivia

• Raina has taken 35 catches in IPL, which is the highest for a non-wicketkeeper. He has scored 680 runs in Chennai, the highest by any player on their home turf in the IPL.
• The Dhoni-Raina partnership has yielded 752 runs in IPL, which is third behind Gambhir-Sehwag and Gibbs-Gilchrist.
  

  Quotes

  “We had a good couple of years initially. The last two years were not very good. I think this year should be better, overall.”

Yuvraj Singh, the India batsman, has completed his chemotherapy and is expected to return to India in the first half of April. He was admitted to hospital for his last cycle of chemotherapy and has now been discharged. Yuvraj underwent three sessions of chemotherapy in Indianapolis at the IU Simon Cancer Centre at the Indiana University Medical Centre under Lawrence H Einhorn, who headed the treatment of cycling champion Lance Armstrong in 1996.Yuvraj had tweeted on Sunday morning about his chemotherapy sessions being complete.Yuvraj was diagnosed with cancer early last month. His condition is called “mediastinal seminoma”, a germ-cell tumour located between his two lungs – the tumour is a rare one, forming less than 1% of all cancers. He was known to have shown a “slightly better than expected response” to his first cycle of chemotherapy and now, having completed the process, will go through a few weeks of recovery to deal with the side-effects of his treatment.While in the US, where he’s been since the last week of January, Yuvraj has done as much gym work and played pool as was physically possible during his treatment, watched the Superbowl game between the New York Giants and New England Patriots and interacted with a few hundred Indian-origin students of the university after he was recognised when on one of his walks along the Indianapolis canal.

Match facts

Wednesday, April 11, Mumbai
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Ajinkya Rahane will be up against his former franchise at his home ground•AFP

Big Picture

IPL 2012 has produced largely one-sided games in its first week, with Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers contriving to produce a close finish on Monday in Visakhapatnam. When as many as 18 runs are needed off the final over, though, the fielding side usually ends up victorious, but the pressure got to the bowler Daniel Christian instead of the batsman Rohit Sharma.Rohit’s last-ball six masked the fact that Mumbai Indians almost messed up a modest chase of 139 after failing to chase 130 earlier against Pune Warriors India. Sachin Tendulkar’s absence is clearly being felt at the top of the order. Mumbai Indians have tried Ambati Rayudu and T Suman to partner Richard Levi upfront but both combinations haven’t clicked. Their strong bowling attack, though, has delivered in all three games so far.It will be interesting to see what kind of surface greets Rajasthan Royals tomorrow. If the Wankhede pitch assists spin as much as it did during the game against Warriors, Royals’ attack consisting of medium-pacers and spinners will be difficult to get away. Royals have won both their games comfortably so far. Their captain Rahul Dravid has been at pains to point out that though the victories have come at home in Jaipur, they haven’t been achieved on the slow and low surfaces that became synonymous with the city during the first four seasons of the IPL. How will Royals fare in their first away match of the season?

Players to watch

The last time Royals played against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Ajinkya Rahane did not get to bat in a ten-wicket win for his side. An orthodox batsman, he missed out on a Twenty20 century by two runs against Kings XI Punjab and was run out for a duck against Kolkata Knight Riders. He will be up against his former franchise tomorrow at his home ground.Harbhajan Singh may have led Mumbai Indians to the Champions League Twenty20 title, but his ugly argument with umpire Johan Cloete during the game against Chargers was unbecoming of a captain. Instead of trying to control the outbursts of the bowler Munaf Patel, Harbhajan went a step ahead and had a prolonged argument with Cloete, almost forcing the official to refer the appeal against Kumar Sangakkara to the third umpire. Harbhajan got away with just a warning and a reprimand but his behaviour should be under scrutiny tomorrow.

2011 head-to-head

Royals beat Mumbai Indians in both meetings last season, bettering their seven-wicket win at home with a ten-wicket thrashing away.

Stats and trivia

• Not only is Lasith Malinga the leading wicket-taker in the IPL, he also has the third-best economy-rate, 6.28
• Royals have a win-loss ratio of 2.83 at home, by far the best for IPL teams.

Quotes

“It’s obviously been quite hectic, going up and down and playing our fourth game in eight days. But the guys are being taken care of by the support staff.”

“Rahul is a bit calmer than Warnie, [who] is a bit more out there and tries probably a lot more things on the field. But I think Rahul is good for young players. He is nice and calm on the field and that rubs off on all the other guys.”

ScorecardStafanie Taylor anchored West Indies’ innings with 75 off 132 balls•West Indies Cricket Board

Stafanie Taylor’s half-century led West Indies Women to a total that was easily defended in St. Kitts, leveling the ODI series against India Women at 1-1 with one to play.Taylor opened the innings after West Indies chose to bat and anchored it, scoring 75 off 132 balls. Most of her team-mates got starts and no one kicked on, but a succession of useful contributions and partnerships helped West Indies post 204 for 6 in 50 overs. The captain Merissa Aguilleira’s 33 was the next best score. Ekta Bisht took 3 for 33 for India.India were rocked early in their chase, losing their first three wickets for seven runs. Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur added 45 to begin the recovery but both were dismissed in the space of 15 runs, leaving India on 67 for 5. There were small contributions from Mamatha Kanojia and Amita Sharma, who top scored with 33, but it wasn’t substantial enough to take India close. They were restricted to 162 for 9 in 50 overs. Shemaine Campbelle, Shakera Selman and Anisa Mohammed took two wickets apiece.Edited by George Binoy

Jhulan Goswami, India Women’s captain, has been conferred with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India, for her services to sports.Goswami, 28, is currently the top-ranked bowler in the ICC Women’s cricket rankings with 135 wickets in 114 ODIs, and she is the third on the overall all-time wicket-takers list. She made her debut as a 18-year-old and is now widely considered one of the fastest bowlers in women’s cricket. In 2010, she received the Arjuna Award, the highest civilian honour for sportspersons.Goswami is the second India woman cricketer to be awarded the Padma Shri after Diana Edulji, the first Indian Women’s captain. She joins the an illustrious list of cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag, Bishan Bedi, Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni, to have been conferred with the award.The awards will be presented by the President of India in a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan in Delhi later this year.

Kevin Pietersen has agreed a rolling deal with Surrey, which will keep him with the club until the end of his ECB central contact.Pietersen joined Surrey ahead of the 2011 season following a brief loan spell with the county in late 2010, when he quit Hampshire and was then left out of the England one-day team. This new arrangement suggests he is unlikely to linger in the domestic game once his England days are over.Pietersen made four appearances for Surrey – two first-class and two Twenty20s – last season between his England commitments. He captained Surrey against Cambridge MCCU, which was his comeback match after the hernia that ended his 2011 World Cup early.”Surrey is a fantastic club and I have been really impressed with the environment and work ethic in place,” Pietersen said. “Their recent success is well deserved and I look forward to working with them in 2012.”

Mohammad Ashraful has been recalled to the Bangladesh squad for the two Tests against Pakistan starting later this week. Ashraful, who did not play the ODIs against Pakistan, is one of four changes to the Test squad that played West Indies in October and November.The vice-captain Mahmudullah, medium-pacer Robiul Islam and batsman Nazimuddin were the other inclusions in the 15-man group, in place of opener Imrul Kayes and middle-order batsmen Raqibul Hasan and Shuvagata Hom.Ashraful had been out of the Bangladesh squad since being dropped for the Tests against West Indies, after which the coach Stuart Law had said that he needed to perform to play international cricket. Since then he played five National Cricket League matches for Dhaka Metropolis and scored three half-centuries and one hundred.Mahmudullah’s return to the squad was more straightforward. He had missed the West Indies Tests because of dengue fever and recovered in time to play the ODIs against Pakistan.Law had said that Robiul had missed out on the Tests against West Indies because Bangladesh were unlikely to play three medium-pacers. The squad for that series comprised 14 players, while the one against Pakistan has 15. Robiul strengthened his case by taking 11 wickets on Bangladesh A’s tour of West Indies and took 4 for 39 for Sylhet Divison in their ongoing National Cricket League match against Dhaka Division.Nazimuddin had not played for Bangladesh since 2008 and he was not part of the recent A team’s tour of West Indies either. However, he has scored four half-centuries and a hundred in six NCL matches this season.Kayes was axed after a string of poor performances. He made only 53 runs in three ODIs and 61 runs in two Tests against West Indies. He then scored 28 and 3 in an NCL match for Khulna Division, after which he was out for 2 and 6 in the Twenty20 and an ODI against Pakistan.Shuvagata Hom was dropped even though he did not play a Test against West Indies and is yet to debut. Raqibul was cut after a poor A tour of the Caribbean, where he made only 91 runs in eight innings across formats.Squad: Mushfiqur Rahim (capt), Mahmudullah (vc), Tamim Iqbal, Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Ashraful, Shakib Al Hasan, Naeem Islam, Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Nazmul Hossain, Elias Sunny, Shahadat Hossain, Suhrawadi Shuvo, Robiul Islam, Nazimuddin.

ScorecardThe second day of the Sheffield Shield clash between Western Australia and South Australia in Perth was washed out without a ball being bowled. The Warriors will resume on the third day with a lead of 90 after they skittled the Redbacks for 93 on the opening day.South Australia’s coach, Darren Berry, said his team had put in an embarrassing performance on the first day.”We lacked a bit of commitment with the bat and I think we played at too many balls which we could have left alone,” Berry told reporters in Perth. “There’s no excuses from us … it wasn’t about the wicket, we just batted badly. It’s one thing to get knocked over with the bat, but I think we were really poor with the ball as well.”

Peter Roebuck, the respected cricket commentator and columnist, has died in South Africa.South African police have released a statement confirming that Roebuck took his own life.”This office can confirm that an incident occurred last night at about 21.15 at a hotel in Claremont where a 55-year-old British national who worked as an Australian commentator committed suicide,” the statement said. “The circumstances surrounding this incident is being conducted. An inquest docket has been opened for investigation.”Roebuck was in South Africa covering Australia’s ongoing Test tour, including as a radio commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). He was spoken to by local police on his return to the Southern Sun Hotel Newlands on Saturday night after he had been out to dinner.In addition to his work in print and radio, Roebuck was also a widely read columnist for ESPNcricinfo, contributing his views in both written and audio form. His last column had expressed cautious optimism about the progress of the Australian team. Sambit Bal, editor of ESPNcricinfo, said Roebuck had always pressed the importance of avoiding nationalism in how the game should be viewed.”He was a rare global voice in the game,” he said. “He used to say that there was too much nationalism in cricket writing. His writing was devoid of any allegiance to nation, team or any player. I cherished his friendship and counsel.”Roebuck was born in Oxford on March 6, 1956, the son of two schoolteachers and one of six children. He was an accomplished batsman for Somerset and went on to captain the county to success in the 1980s. He also led an England team against Netherlands.In 335 first-class matches, Roebuck made 17,558 runs at 37.27, with 33 centuries. His playing career was overshadowed to some degree by a drawn-out feud with other Somerset players, which led to the removal of Joel Garner and Viv Richards, and the exit of Ian Botham.As Roebuck’s cricket developed, so did his writing. , his journal of the 1983 season, established him as one of cricket’s most insightful voices, and he would go on to write numerous other books, including an account of England’s Ashes success in Australia in 1986-87.Roebuck chose to leave England eleven years ago after being involved in a controversial court case. In 1999, he was accused of caning three teenage South African cricketers who had stayed with him in his house near Taunton, Somerset. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to three charges of common assault at Taunton Crown Court, and was given a suspended sentence of four months for each count, the sentences suspended for two years. At the time, he had said, ”Obviously I misjudged the mood and that was my mistake and my responsibility, and I accept that.”After leaving England, Roebuck divided his time between residences in Sydney, Australia and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Australia had played a growing part in Roebuck’s life from the early 1990s; he had spent summers there, teaching and playing cricket, then graduating to writing and commentating, before establishing one of his two homes there a decade ago.Roebuck’s columns were fiercely independent, often expressing the contrarian view but at other times articulating the thoughts of many. His views were never more hotly-debated than when the ran a front-page opinion piece in which Roebuck called for the sacking of Ricky Ponting as Australia captain following the acrimonious 2008 SCG Test against India.He was outspoken on numerous topics, not least the degeneration of Zimbabwe cricket, and was also a frequent questioner of the game’s administrators and money-men. He wrote critically of the influence of betting, both legal and illegal, within the game, and warned against the proliferation of cricket without meaning or context.

Arguments in the alleged spot-fixing trial of Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif began on Wednesday afternoon with the prosecution making its opening address to the jury, outlining trappings of an illegal cricket betting industry estimated to be worth between “$40 billion and $50 billion” annually.The second day of the trial at Southwark Crown Court in central London was initially dominated by further legal arguments between the various representatives involved in the case, the details of which cannot be reported. A new jury was sworn in after lunch because of an illness to a member of the initial jury. Like the former jury, though, the new one was also made up of six women and six men.Justice Cooke did not then waste any time in beginning the proceedings and Aftab Jafferjee QC began to present the prosecution’s case to the jury at 2.10 pm. He spoke late into the afternoon before closing for the day at 4.35 pm. He will continue his opening address on Thursday morning, before the ICC’s general manager and chief investigator Ravi Sawani gives evidence.Butt and Asif are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord’s Test in August 2010, when they allegedly conspired with agent Mazhar Majeed, fast bowler Mohammad Amir and other people unknown to bowl pre-determined no-balls. Butt and Asif deny the charges.They were exposed by the now-defunct British tabloid in an undercover sting operation. Majeed was filmed revealing when no-balls would be delivered by the bowlers.Jafferjee distributed large plastic folders to the jury so that they could better understand his address. These comprised records of phone and SMS traffic between the involved parties. There were also graphics to help the jury understand the specifics of a no-ball.In fact, because the prosecution realises it cannot presume that all jurors are aware of cricket, Jafferjee spent some time explaining what a no-ball is, what a Test match is and he also outlined how illegal betting has penetrated the world of cricket.”This case reveals a depressing tale of rampant corruption at the heart of international cricket, with the key players being members of the Pakistan cricket team,” was Jafferjee’s opening address to the court.He went on to add, of the underground betting culture in cricket: “You (the jury) will hear that the sums of money involved in the betting market abroad are breathtaking. In just one year, it is conservatively estimated that the amounts turned over in betting in the Asian subcontinent only – covering matches played throughout the cricketing world – are in the region of US$40 and 50 billion. Even if that figure is reduced to a tenth, it not unsurprisingly makes ‘spot’-fixing and match-fixing irresistible to some.”One sensed that to a jury comprising people who would not know cricket all that much, it would have been an arduous afternoon. Even for people who know cricket. Much of what Jafferjee said was already in the public domain through the coverage last year. He explained that whatever opinion people had of that now defunct newspaper, they should not undermine the investigative journalism that went on to expose the allegations being tried in this case.”There are vast amounts of money to be made in any betting activity if the results are known in advance – and all of that was at the expense of the integrity of the game.”Those that were prepared to act in this way involved key players of the Pakistan side, starting with their captain Salman Butt. He and his agent Mazhar Majeed were central to this particular conspiracy. They alone, however, could not ensure that a wide range of corrupt practices would take place without others being part of this particular operation. Their two top-order fast bowlers were involved: Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir.”It is the prosecution’s case that all four men were involved and, by the time the last Test match at Lord’s took place, each of them was well at it – the two bowlers being orchestrated by their captain, and the captain’s agent, Majeed, to bowl three no-balls at a pre-arranged point in the game. The bowlers were willing participants so that they could all profit – those lower down the ladder probably profiting less than those at the top.”Much of Jafferjee’s address included details of calls and SMS messages between Butt and Majeed, while Amir also featured heavily in these passages, with Asif less so.Jafferjee even revealed the lengths that investigators had gone to, to expose as much truth in this case as possible. He said that a firm in Canada specialised in exposing deleted messages on Blackberry phones and this tactic had been used.While detail was well chronicled at the time of the alleged offence, such as late night conversations and messaging between Butt and Majeed before the Oval Test match (which preceded Lord’s), some detail that ensued from Jafferjee was not so well known: such as text messages between Amir and an unknown in Pakistan.”How much and what needs to be done?” said one message, read out by the prosecution. “This is going to be too much,” said another message. The Pakistani unknown said in one: “So in first three, bowl however you want, and in the last two, do eight runs?” These messages were translated from Urdu, and were thought to be a repetition of instructions he had received at some point.At another time, Jafferjee told the jury how, when police were raiding the players’ rooms at the Marriot Hotel on August 28, Amir contacted a number on a phone given to him by Azhar Majeed – Mazhar’s older brother and business partner – and asked not to be contacted again and to erase all messagesThe trial will resume at 10.00 am on Thursday, though the court will not sit on Friday.