Indian Premier League Chairman Lalit Modi on Sunday welcomed Shoaib Akhtar in the ongoing Twenty20 tournament after a Pakistani appeal tribunal suspended the five-year ban on the maverick speedster for a month, paving way for his participation in the IPL.

“Our condition (to allow him play in IPL) was that the ban must be lifted or suspended. In that effect, Shoaib is now allowed to play in the IPL. We’ve spoken to him and he should be coming to India in the next two days,” Modi said.The IPL chief said that he was in touch with Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Nasim Ashraf, who confirmed that the five-year ban on Shoaib had been suspended by the three-member tribunal.

Shoaib’s repeated violation of the player’s Code of Conduct had invited a five-year ban from the PCB, which not only jeopardized his IPL participation but also his entire career.Shoaib subsequently made an appeal against the ban and realising that a final verdict may take long, the pacer made a fresh appeal on Saturday, requesting the tribunal to temporarily suspend the ban and allow him to take part in the IPL.

Modi said with the tribunal clearing the deck for Shoaib’s participation for the remainder of the IPL, the speedster was naturally happy.“Shoaib was very happy and he is looking forward to it. He has been calling me on a daily basis. Shoaib joining the Kolkata Knight Riders squad would also add sheen to the tournament,” Modi said.

“It’s a great moment for us because he is a great asset for IPL. He has got a huge fan base in India and the Knight Riders are extremely happy. I spoke to (Knight Riders owner) Shah Rukh (Khan), he is very happy. He wanted Shoaib to come for one day at least. We are happy that Shoaib can now play for him,” Modi added.Modi said the pacer could play the next match for the Kolkata outfit, even though it was upto the team management to take a final call on the issue.

“He’s free to play from the next match itself but it would depend on when he gets down here. The trainer and physio will check him, the coach would go through the process. So whether he would play the next match or not, it’s for the Knight Riders to decide,” Modi said.

Source: PTI / Times Of India

Today was a match between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings in the DLF – IPL. This was the 24 match of the league. Chennai Super Kings won the toss and decided to bat first. They were given a target of 110 which was really a small target for Rajasthan Royals to achieve. Graeme Smith and Swapnil Asnodkar opened the batting for Rajasthan Royals and took the score to 78 before Swapnil Asnodkar was out. The score of the team was 92 for the loss of 2 wickets in 12 overs. Graeme Smith was the top scorer for Rajasthan Royals and thus helped the team to win the match very easily.

Match Notes Are :

• Chennai Super Kings innings
• Chennai Super Kings: 50 runs in 8.5 overs (54 balls), Extras 6
• Chennai Super Kings: 100 runs in 18.3 overs (113 balls), Extras 7
• Innings Break: Chennai Super Kings – 109/10 in 19.0 overs (M Gony 1)

• Rajasthan Royals innings
• Rajasthan Royals: 50 runs in 6.4 overs (43 balls), Extras 9
• 1st Wicket: 50 runs in 43 balls (GC Smith 23, SA Asnodkar 21, Ex 9)
• Rajasthan Royals: 100 runs in 12.5 overs (84 balls), Extras 21

Today – Match 24 – Scorecard – Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings

Today was a match between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings in the DLF – IPL, played at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur. This was the 24th match of the league. Chennai Super Kings won the toss and decided to bat first. It seems from the very first ball of the match that Rajasthan Royals were in no mood to let Chennai Super Kings to play well. Parthiv Patel and Stephen Fleming opened the batting for Chennai Super Kings and was the worst start for their team. On the very first ball Parthiv Patel was lbw by Sohail Tanvir, moreover Stephen Fleming as also lbw by Sohail Tanvir on the fifty ball of the match. The score was 11 when Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan was caught by Shane Warne. The partnership of Suresh Raina and Albie Morkel took the team score to 87/6. The score of the team was 91 for the loss of 7 wickets in 15 overs. Albie Morkel was the top scorer for Chennai Super. Five batsmen were out on 0 score. In the end the team scored 109 runs in 20 overs.

Sohail Tanvir was at his excellence, he took 6 wickets in 4 overs, 14 runs

Today – Match 24 – Scorecard – Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings

Today was a match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils in the DLF – IPL. This was the 23 match of the league. Delhi Daredevils won the toss and decided to bowl first. They were given a target of 162 and Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag opened the batting for Delhi Daredevils and took the score to 3 before Gautam Gambhir was out. He was followed by Shikhar Dhawan when the team’s score was just 4. The score of the team was 133 in 18.5 overs. Sanath Jayasuriya was the top scorer for Mumbai Indians and thus helped the team to win the match

Match Notes Are :

• Mumbai Indians innings
• Mumbai Indians: 50 runs in 5.5 overs (36 balls), Extras 2
• Mumbai Indians: 100 runs in 12.3 overs (77 balls), Extras 7
• 3rd Wicket: 50 runs in 40 balls (DJ Thornely 24, RV Uthappa 21, Ex 5)
• Mumbai Indians: 150 runs in 18.5 overs (117 balls), Extras 10
• Innings Break: Mumbai Indians – 162/8 in 20.0 overs (RR Raje 6, A Nehra 0)

• Delhi Daredevils innings
• Delhi Daredevils: 50 runs in 7.6 overs (49 balls), Extras 1
• Delhi Daredevils: 100 runs in 12.5 overs (78 balls), Extras 2

Today – Match 23 – Scorecard – Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils

In the match number 23 of DLF – IPL, Delhi Daredevils played against Mumbai Indians.Delhi Daredevils won the toss and decided to field first.Mumbai Indians got on to a flying start and Jayasurya-Yogesh duo scored 46 runs. But then both these were out in the same over and Mumbai Indians were 50/2 in 6 overs. It lead to a decrease in the run rate but Dominic Thornley and Robin Utthapa took the charge and played some exquisite shots and took the score to 102 on which Uthappa got out. Dominic Thornley was the next to go and the score was 109/4 in 13.3 overs.Mumbai Indians lost some quick wickets and thus threw away the good start. After 16 overs they were 118/6 and it looked like they might not reach the 150 mark. But Pollock scored 22 runs of 19th over and thus Mumbai Indians scored 162 runs in 20 overs

Today – Match 23 – Scorecard – Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils

Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings is going to be a real thriller today.Rajasthan Royals have won the last played matches where as Chennai Super Kings have suffered the first defeat in the last match from Delhi Daredevils.We have to wait till 8pm IST for this Manoranjan Ka Baap.Here are the expected teams

Rajasthan Royals: (probable) 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Swapnil Asnodkar, 3 Yusuf Pathan, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Mahesh Rawat (wk), 8 Shane Warne (capt), 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel.

Chennai Super Kings: (probable) 1 Parthiv Patel, 2 Stephen Fleming, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), 5 S Badrinath, 6 Albie Morkel, 7, S Vidyut, 8 Joginder Sharma, 9 Muttiah Muralitharan, 10 Manpreet Gony, 11 Makhaya Ntini.

Date – May 4, 2008 24th Match
Venue – Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
20:00 India time.

Keep checking iplcricketlive .com for more information about the match, match videos, match score cards and an analysis of each team’s performance.

Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils is going to be a one sided affair if we consider the history of the matches in IPL. But in cricket you can not rely merely on history. It only depends on which team played superior game on that particular day. So we hope that Mumbai Indians would challenge the mighty Daredevils and we spectators would see a thrilling match this Sunday.

Mumbai Indians (probable) 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Dwayne Bravo, 5 Shaun Pollock, 6 Abhishek Nayar, 7 Pinal Shah (wk), 8 Musavir Khote, 9 Dilhara Fernando, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Dhawal Kulkarni.

Delhi Daredevils (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Shikhar Dhawan, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Dinesh Karthik, 7 Rajat Bhatia, 8 Yo Mahesh, 9 Glenn McGrath, 10 Pradeep Sangwan, 11 Mohammad Asif.

Match Details

Date – May 4, 2008 23rd Match
Venue – Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai
16:00 India time.
Keep checking iplcricketlive .com for more information about the match, match videos, match score cards and an analysis of each team’s performance.

Melbourne: Riding on his superb bowling performances during a brief stint in the Indian Premier League (IPL), pace spearhead Brett Lee emerged as the richest Australian cricketer from the tournament and returned home with 80,000 dollars per scalp for his four wickets.

At the auction, Lee was bought for 900,000 dollars and he took home more than 320,000 dollars in his four matches with Kings XI Punjab.

Meanwhile, captain Ricky Ponting, who had a poor outing with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the tournament, returned home as the richest Australian batsman after earnings were worked out on a dollars-per-runs-scored basis.

Ponting was roped in for a modest 400,000 dollars and earned 3663 dollars for every run that he scored in the four matches that he played.

He scored 39 runs, which also included two golden ducks, and took home 142,000 dollars.

However, Ponting admitted that he would have liked to score more runs saying that his impact ”wasn’t that great”, according to The Australian newspaper.

The World-Cup-winning captain also voiced his concern that the temptation to play in the IPL could end up ruining international cricket as we know it.

”There’s a real danger there that international players might just see the glitz and glamour of this event and not want to play international cricket any more, which I don’t think would be great for the game,” Ponting was quoted as saying by The Australian.

All-rounder Andrew Symonds, who was the highest paid foreign player at the auction, became richer by 500,000 dollars after making just four appearances with the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers.

Symonds pocketed 3000 dollars for each of his 161 runs.

Opener Matthew Hayden (134,000 dollars) and Michael Hussey (125,000 dollars) both brought home more for two weeks’ work than most Australians get for two years.

Simon Katich, who played just two matches for Kings XI Punjab, fetched only 200,000 dollars at the auction but earned 60,000 dollars for his efforts.

Source: sify.com