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Captain vs Captain: Ganguly and Steve Waugh

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , , | Posted On Monday, July 29, 2013 at 4:39 PM

Earlier during the match when Ganguly was batting Steve Waugh had a heated exchange with him. When Australia comes to bat Ganguly returns the favor by getting his wicket. Steve Waugh is caught by Sachin Tendulkar in Ganguly's ball.

Glenn McGrath's six and Gilchrist's reaction.

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , | Posted On at 4:34 PM


Glenn McGrath Six against Daniel Vettori

This is a gem of a video we just found on Youtube. Glenn McGrath sweeps Daniel Vettori for a six, and the whole ground stands to applause. The Australian dressing room is surprised and Gilchrist's reaction says it all.

Birthday wishes to Sunil Gavaskar

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, July 10, 2013 at 9:39 PM

Birthday Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar
We wish a very happy birthday to the Legend Sunny Gavaskar, who turned 64 today. Gavaskar till date is India's best test opener and has been an inspiration to many young cricketers like Dravid and Tendulkar who idolized him. He was widely known for his ability to perform well against fast bowlers and often he went out to bat without a helmet. His average of 65 against West Indies indicates how well he played fast bowlers of that era. He is the first player in test history to cross 10,000 runs. 

We wish him good health and happiness.

Sanju Samson: the best young player of the IPL

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , , , | Posted On Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 7:31 AM

Sanju Samson: The rising talent of Indian Cricket.

The young royal, a find by Rahul Dravid himself has been voted as the best talent of the IPL in a poll by IPL's official website. Sanju finished first with 55% of the votes before Hanuma Vihari of the Sunrisers Hyderabad who finished with 27%. Sanju who comes from Trivandrum in Kerala was personally called by the wall himself to join the Rajasthan Royals squad after he came to know of his performances for the state team. Sanju Viswanathan Samson was awarded man of the match against RCB on 29th april where his innings of 63 was vital in winning the match for Rajasthan Royals. He later scored a 40 and a 47 against KKR and Kings XI respectively. 

Alan Wilkins the commentator tweeted that Sanju reminds him of Sachin Tendular, 'Young, Skilled and Honest'. Harsha Bhogle picked him among three indian players to look out for along with Mohit Sharma and Karan Sharma. Harsha wrote on cricinfo, 
 " he played a cover drive off the first ball and in our commentary box there was a collective gasp. He had played it easily, like he was plucking a flower. Everything about the shot was right; a master would have been proud to have played it, and in the context of the game it was exceptional. "
Dravid during the post-match interview after one of the games he said " Sanju batted beautifully, He has a long way to go ". We wish the young Sanju Samson the very best.

Rajasthan Royals finish 3rd in IPL 2013

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , , | Posted On at 6:13 AM

Dravid managed to get the best out a team that didn't have big names on paper.

The Rajasthan Royals lead by Rahul Dravid, has finished 3rd in the sixth edition of the IPL after a nail-biting finish against the Mumbai Indians at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Having won the toss, The Royals opted to bat first hoping to make a great start. Rajasthan looked good before the first wicket fell of Ajinkya Rahane who was bowled by Harbhajan Singh, they were 44-1 then. Shane Watson and Sanju Samson departed soon and the Royals were 64-3 at that stage and in walked Stuart Binny who played a quick fire 27 from 17 balls to regain momentum for his team. Dravid soon fell caught by Rohit Sharma off Harbhajan Singh. Royals were struggling to get the scoreboard ticking and was 108/6 after 15.3 overs when Cooper was dismissed. Dishant Yagnik who walked out next along with Brad Hodge took the royals to 165/6 after 20 overs. Thanks to some brilliant batting by Yagnik and poor bowling effort by Mallinga.

Mumbai's Innings was held together by Dwayne Smith, who along with opener AP Tare put on a partnership of 70 runs before Tare was dismissed by Kevon Cooper. After Tare left, Dinesh Karthik and Smith built the MI innings and they were looking as if they would cruise to a win here. Cooper who came back for his second spell got Karthik out in his first ball and suddenly it looked as if Royals had the advantage. Faulkner gave away just 1 run and took 1 wicket in the next over and the pressure was back on the MI. Pollard looked dangerous before he was dismissed by Faulkner. Rohit Sharma was bowled the very next over by Trivedi and things looked very even. Mumbai needed 8 runs of the last over and Dravid went to Shane Watson for the penultimate over. Rayudu took 2 runs of the first ball of the over and was bowled in the next. In walked Dhawan instead of M Johnson and managed to sneak a boundary of his first bowl. Soon MI needed just 1 run in 2 balls to win when Harbhajan cleared the ropes to take MI to victory. Harbhajan was awarded Man of the match for his bowling performance and finish. Now the Mumbai Indians will face the Chennai Super Kings at the final, scheduled on 27th at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.


Rajasthan Royals meanwhile has qualified for the Champions League which is scheduled to happen after a couple of months. We congratulate the Royals who gave their 100% to reach so far in the competition and managed to win against every IPL team. We also wish them the very best at the CLT20.

Zaheer Khan recovers from Injury and plays for Royal Challengers

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: | Posted On Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 5:24 AM

India's pace spearhead Zaheer Khan finally has recovered from injury. Zaheer played today for the Royal Challengers against Punjab Kings XI with figures of 4-0-30-1 in a match where all the other RCB bowlers finished with economies of over 8. Zaheer took the wicket of Shaun Marsh getting him bowled in his first over.

Zaheer was recently dropped from the Champions trophy squad following the injury. India's fast bowlers will now be led by Ishant Sharma with Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Vinay Kumar and Umesh Yadav for company. We wish Zaheer the very best for the rest of the matches.


Dravid's Royals take on Kohli's Challengers at the Fortress

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, April 29, 2013 at 6:29 AM


Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid.
The first time these two met in this IPL. It was Chris Gayle who got the home team through with an innings that was very unusual from a batsmen like him. He scored 49 from 43 balls to take RCB to victory. But that story was back in Bangalore. Now the venue has shifted and it is Rajasthan's fortress, The Sawai Mansingh Stadium where the match will be played.

Rajasthan is high on confidence after a win over the Sunrisers Hyderabad thanks to some awesome team work and special efforts from the two Aussies, James Faulkner and Shane Watson. The Royal Challengers meanwhile suffered a humiliating loss to Mumbai Indians at the latter's home ground. None of their key players, Gayle, Kohli and Devilliers fired that day. Kohli was booed by the Mumbai Indian crowd calling him a cheater after the dismissal of Ambati Rayudu. 

Rajasthan is counting high on Faulkner, Watson, Rahane, Dravid and Trivedi to get them through, while RCB will be hopping for another Gayle Storm and that captain regains form. Interestingly we would love to see the battle between Orange cap holder Chris Gayle and the purple cap holder James Faulkner. The match would start live at 4:00pm and will be live on both Setmax and Youtube.

Image courtesy: Prokerala.com

Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad with ease

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: | Posted On Sunday, April 28, 2013 at 3:00 AM

 
Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad full match replay
 
Thanks to brilliance from two Aussies, James Faulkner and Shane Watson the Rajasthan Royals have managed to upset the Sunrisers Hyderabad with an 8 wicket victory at the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur. Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat first hoping to put some pressure on the home team who defend better at their home ground. James Faulkner and Ajit Chandila hunted in pairs and at the 5th over Sunrisers Hyderabad were down to 29/6. Darren Sammy along with Amit Mishra built a partnership that took SRH above the 100 mark. Thanks to heroics from Dale Steyn in the depth overs the Sunrisers managed to finish at 144/9. 

In Rajasthan's innings, Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane walked out to open the innings instead of the usual duo of Rahane and Watson. Rahane soon departed and Watson walked in. Dravid and Watson put on a partnership that took the royals to a position where their current rate got less than the required. After Dravid's dismissal Stuart Binny came and gave support to Watson, who tore apart the Sunrisers bowling lineup with a share of luck from the heaven. The game was finished in the 17th over and Watson missed his century by 2 runs. The Man of the match was awarded to James Faulkner who bowled beautifully to fetch 5 wickets just giving 20 runs in his allotted four overs.

Rahul's Rajasthan Royals vs Sangakkara's Sun Risers

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , | Posted On Saturday, April 27, 2013 at 7:26 AM


Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad
The Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad have been the surprise packages of this year's IPL. Both teams have won against teams like Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore.  Both the teams don't have big names in their line up, but rely up on team chemistry to win the matches. RR and SRH both have very good bowlers who can contain batsmen to below par scores. 

Rajasthan Royals will be looking forward to another good opening stand from Watson and Rahane. Watson is on top of his form and made the maiden IPL century of this season but was short-lived after GayleStorm hit the next day. They will also be banking on their bowlers and allrounders Siddharth Trivedi, James Faulkner and Kevon Cooper. It would be interesting to see if the Royals would play Owais Shah for this match.

Sunrisers Hyderabad though they lost to Chennai in their last match looks confident in their ability. With Shikhar Dhawan back in the side and performing they look even better with the bat. The management's only worry now would be an injury to Dhawan. Dale Steyn and Amit Mishra are the pillars of their bowling attack along with Ishant Sharma. 

We expect a low scoring thriller on the cards with the bowlers of both sides looking to be in top form.

Image Courtesy: facebook.com/RajasthanRoyals

 

Oldest player in the IPL and still the best

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, April 08, 2013 at 8:57 AM

When Rajasthan Royals played the Delhi Daredevils in their first league match at Ferozsha Kotla stadium, Rahul Dravid went on to become the oldest player to play in this edition of the IPL. Dravid went on to score 65runs from 41 balls to help the Royals cross the 160 mark. Stuart Binny's short cameo also helped to improve the score. He also went on to win the man of the match award.

 
Highlights of Dravid's match winning innings.

Great to have Paddy Upton at the Royals : Rahul Dravid

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: | Posted On Saturday, February 02, 2013 at 11:18 PM

Paddy Upton, last week joined Rajasthan Royals as their head coach. Paddy Upton was India's mental conditioning coach when Gary Kirsten had coached India. He is regarded as one of the main reasons behind India performing so well chasing 275 in the world cup final. Upton is currently the mental conditioning coach of the South African cricket team.
Paddy Upton said to the press, 

It is indeed an honour for me to coach a dynamic team like Rajasthan Royals. It will be wonderful to work with Rahul once more,
Rahul Dravid, the skipper of Rajasthan Royals commented that,
I have worked with Paddy in the past and greatly respect him for his knowledge and professionalism. We welcome him to Rajasthan Royals and look forward to working with him
We believe this is a very good move by the team management. He is a real asset and a great mentor to the whole team.

Padma Bhushan Rahul Sharad Dravid !

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , , | Posted On Saturday, January 26, 2013 at 1:44 PM

Padma Bhushan Rahul Sharad Dravid
Finally after the nomination, the honors have been announced and Rahul Dravid is among the list of 24 Padma Bhushan winners alongside sportsperson Mary Kom, India's women boxing sensation. It was a few days back that Dravid's, Sushil Kumar's and Mary Kom's name was suggested to be honorred with India's third highest civilian honor, The Padma Bhushan. So from this day onwards RD will now officially be referred to as 'Padma Bhushan Rahul Sharad Dravid '. Be Proud :)


Here is a full list of Padma honoraries - Padma_awards.jpg

Sports ministry recommends Padmabhushan to Dravid

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , | Posted On Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 7:19 AM

The Sports Ministry on 22nd January suggested names of two sports persons for India's third highest civilian honor, The Padambhushan. The two recommended sportsperson are Rahul Dravid and olympic medal winning wrestler Sushil Kumar. RD was awarded the Padmashri back in 2004, Only Sachin Tendulkar has a higher civilian honor if Dravid is awarded with the title.

We wish RD and Sushil Kumar the very best. :)

Rahul Dravid's SG Bats - Specifications

Posted by Athul Jayachandran | Labels: , , | Posted On Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 6:20 AM

SG is a very famous cricket gear brand which RD endorses and they have on display now a set of  bats under 'The Wall Series'. These bats range from Rs 1650 to Rs 9800, and a few of them are available at an online shopping website.

SG on it's official website says,

 "This by-the-book batsman has an endless supply of both stamina and patience. Ask the opposition. Or the millions of fans. They call him “The Wall”. If there's one lesson that a batsman—or any cricketer—can learn from Rahul Sharad Dravid, it's this. There is nothing that you can't do if you put your mind to it. The SG Wall Series is inspired by Dravid and designed for never-say-die batsmen like him. "



SG RSD Plus Kashmir Willow Cricket Bat


This bat is the cheapest of the range and comes at a very attractive price of Rs 1650/- and is meant for beginners and intermediate players above the age of 14. The bat features thick edges and a curved blade for performance and stability. The bat is available at Flipkart for around Rs 1400/-.

Buy SG RSD Plus Kashmir Willow Cricket Bat from Flipkart.com





SG RSD Selected English Willow Cricket Bat


This bat is the in the intermediate range of bats available in the SG RSD Wall Series and is made of selected English Willow. The bat is light weighted has a Chevtec grip, Curved blade and thick edges along with a higher sweet spot making it one of the best available at the price. The bat priced at 4499 is available at Flipkart for Rs 3824.

Buy SG RSD Select English Willow Cricket Bat from Flipkart.com





SG RSD Pro English Willow Cricket Bat


This bat from the RSD series is the one of the lightest and is entirely made from English Willow and is recommended for advanced players above the age of 14. Curved edges, a higher sweet spot and thick edges add to the charm of this bat. This bat is priced at 5499 Rs in stores and is available at Flipkart at around 4674 Rs.

Buy SG RSD Pro English Willow Cricket Bat from Flipkart.com


There are three costlier models available at stores, RSD Super, RSD Elite and RSD Ultimate priced at 6000, 7000 and 9800 Rs respectively. You can find more details at the  SG RSD Wall series page.
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