After bouncing back from their opening match defeat, last year’s runners-up Chennai Super Kings will look to maintain their winning momentum as they take on Delhi Daredevils in their Indian Premier League match here on Thursday.

Chennai Super Kings had a shaky start when they lost to Mumbai Indians in the IPL opener but Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men bounced back in the next match beating the Bangalore Royal Challengers by 92 runs.

With orange cap wearer Australian Matthew Hayden in great touch even after his retirement, CSK have no less a batting firepower than the formidable looking batting line-up of the Daredevils and cracker of a match is on the cards on Thursday.

Hayden, the current leading scorer, smashed the second fastest fifty in IPL en route to his 35-ball 65 and in company with Parthiv Patel plundered 106 runs for the opening wicket against Bangalore.

Chennai have some fine all-rounders in England’s Andrew Flintoff and South African Albie Morkel and with left-hander Suresh Raina also finding his form with a valuable 28 against Bangalore, there doesn’t seem to be any major chink in their batting resources.

Delhi Daredevils have also some in-form batsmen in their ranks with skipper Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir showing no problems in scoring easy runs. Delhi is also having some quality players like big hitter David Warner and old warhorse Glenn McGrath, who are still to make an appearance in the second edition of the Twenty20 extravaganza.

Among pacers, the Daredevils will depend on exuberance of Indian youngsters Pradeep Sangwan, Yo Mahesh and Australian Dirk Nannes, while Super Kings will have the task entrusted on Manpreet Gony, Laxmipathi Balaji and all-rounders Flintoff and Morkel.

And with spinners dominating the game so far, tomorrow’s match would also be a clash between New Zealander Daniel Vettori and Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan, both scalping three wickets in their last matches.

Tags: Albie Morkel, Chennai Super kings, Chennai Super Kings Vs Delhi Daredevils, Daniel Vettori, Delhi Daredevils, Dhoni, Flintoff, Gambir, IPL 2, IPL 2009, IPL 2009 News, IPL South Africa, L Balaji, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mathew Hayden, Muttiah Muralitharan, Sehwag, Suresh Raina

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The Chennai Super Kings put their title back on track in stunning manner with a massive 92-run win over the Bangalore Royal Challengers in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here Monday.

The Chennai side first scored 179 for five, riding on Australian Matthew Hayden’s blistering 35-ball 65, and then bundled out Bangalore for just 87 in 15.2 overs.

Hayden, who retired from international cricket earlier this year, was at his dominating best, picking gaps to reach his third IPL half-century in just 22 balls, and in the process, helping the Chennai side to the highest Twenty20 score at St George’s Park here.

If Hayden was the batsman around whom the Chennai innings built their innings after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss, it was Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralidharan, who bewildered the Bangalore batsmen with his variations and turn, returning figures of 3/11 from four overs. Laxmipathi Balaji took two wickets while Manpreet Gony, Andrew Flintoff, Albie Morkel and Joginder Sharma chipped with one wicket each to throttle the Bangalore batsmen.

Set a huge target of 180 at nine per over, Bangalore were never in with a chance as their top five were gone by the eighth over for a mere 50 runs.

Tags: Albie Morkel, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Chennai Super kings, Dhoni, Flintoff, IPL 2, IPL 2009 News, IPL South Africa, Ipl T20, Joginder Sharma, Kevin Pietersen, L Balaji, Manpreet Gony, Mathew Hayden, Muralidharan, Muttiah Muralitharan, Royal Challengers, Royal Challengers Vs Chennai Super Kings, Super Kings

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The Indian Premier League may bring unforseen riches to the world’s top cricketers, but not everyone has fallen for the lure of the lucre.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting and senior pro Michael Hussey opted out of the IPL’s second season starting in South Africa on Saturday to rest tired limbs after a back-breaking schedule.

Two other Australians, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson, did not even put themselves up for auction, saying they wanted to concentrate on their international careers.

Expensive players are not guaranteed their entire riches as the England duo of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have found out.

Both went for record sums of 1.55 million dollars each at this year’s auction, but England’s home series against the West Indies in May has shortened their IPL participation to the first two weeks.

Players are paid on a pro-rata basis and two other England stars, Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah, will also be similarly affected.

Collingwood and Shah were picked up by the Delhi Daredevils team for identical amounts of 275,000 dollars each.

West Indian captain Chris Gayle, who commands 800,000 dollars from the Kolkata Knight Riders, and team-mate Fidel Edwards, a new signee with the Deccan Chargers for 150,000 dollars, will also be available for two weeks.

Australian controversial all-rounder Andrew Symonds, bought by the Deccan Chargers for 1.35 million last year, will now be available for only the last two weeks of the IPL.

Brett Lee, a 900,000-dollar signee with Kings XI Punjab, may not even play at all as the Australian medical staff monitors his recovery from ankle and foot injury ahead of the Ashes.

Australian Shane Watson, who was the IPL’s player of the tournament last year, is also out till May 7 due to his inclusion for the Pakistan series.

“I think Shane will miss the first nine games and be available for the last five and hopefully the finals,” said Shane Warne, his Rajasthan Royals captain.

The biggest losers are the Pakistani cricketers who were thrown out of the IPL this year after Islamabad denied them permission to travel to India for the tournament following growing tensions between the two countries.

The players’ appeal to allow them to return to the IPL since the tournament had been shifted to South Africa was rejected by tournament organisers.

It deprives Warne’s champion team of the services of left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir, the highest wicket-taker last year with 22 wickets.

Tags: Andrew Flintoff, Andrew Symonds, Australia, Brett Lee, Chennai Super kings, Chris Gayle, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, England, Flintoff, IPL 2, IPL 2009 News, IPL South Africa, Ipl T20, Kevin Pietersen, Kings XI Punjab, Knight Riders, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Owais Shah, Pakistan Cricketers, Paul Collingwood, Rajasthan Royals, Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Sohail Tanvir, South Africa, West Indies

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Aiming for the title that eluded them last year, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) left for Johannesburg this morning sans their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to participate in the second edition of the Indian Premier League that kick starts in South Africa on April 18.

The Super Kings left for Johannesburg via Dubai at 9.45 on Wednesday morning by an Emirates Airlines flight.

Apart from Dhoni, medium pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji and opening batsman Murali Vijay, who will return from New Zealand on Wednesday and some overseas players, including coach-cum-player Stephen Fleming, Mathew Hayden and George Bailey will join the squad later.

From Johannesburg, the Super Kings will travel to Durban on Thursday where they will set up their training camp.

Kasi Viswanathan, Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association and Head of Operations of the Super Kings told that the team is geared up to return with the trophy that they missed last time to Rajasthan Royals.

The Super Kings would be having a six-day training camp in Durban from April 10-15, which includes a few practice matches against local teams before leaving for Cape Town to play Mumbai Indians in the second match on the opening day of the high-profile Twenty20 tournament.

Vishwanathan also informed that along with Dhoni, Andrew Flintoff and Jacob Oram will be joining the team in Cape Town on April 15.

Tags: Chennai Super kings, Dhoni, Flintoff, IPL 2010 - IPL 3, L Balaji, Mathew Hayden, Oram, South Africa, Stephen Fleming, Super Kings

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