Himalayan task ahead of Punjab

Match Facts

Tuesday, May 17 Start Time 2000 (1430 GMT)

	Chris Gayle destroyed Kings XI Punjab last time around© AFP Enlarge

Big Picture

You come into the tournament with the weakest team on paper; shock everyone by winning three of your fist four matches; give the IPL its first surprise hero of the tournament; have an inexplicable seven-day break that seems to derail your campaign; claw your way back into contention with three wins; and your reward is to play for survival against an unstoppable Chris Gayle on a miniature ground in Dharamsala. Who'd be Kings XI Punjab?

Gayle's 436 runs at an average of 87.20 and strike-rate of 201.85 have left even his illustrious team-mates in the shade. Punjab will have particularly bad memories of him; in the first encounter between the two sides, Gayle scored 107 off 49 balls and then took three wickets.

The good news for them is the seemingly-bionic Gayle has not had the most comfortable stay in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh since arriving on Sunday. Cold showers, ill-timed construction work and his fans on twitter kept him awake for most of his first night, and Punjab will be grateful for any further assistance in disconcerting the man who has smashed 32 sixes in seven games since arriving in India.

They would be ill-advised to fixate on Gayle, though, because unlike Delhi Daredevils, who are lost without their main man, Bangalore have plenty in reserve. Don't be surprised if Gayle goes for a duck and Bangalore win anyway.

Adam Gilchrist has been talking up his players after their big win against Delhi Daredevils at the same ground, prophesising a bright international career for Piyush Chawla, and likening Paul Valthaty's style of batting to his own. Is that his way of boosting their confidence before they take on a side whose seven-match winning streak has given new meaning to that elusive IPL quantity - "momentum"? Or is it simply placing them on a wobbly plank, or a precipice from which Gayle and Co. would be only happy to push them down.

Team talk

Preity Zinta's pep talk hasn't had much of an impact on David Hussey's form. He's scored 64 runs from seven innings; Ryan Mclaren scored more in the three innings he had, and gives the side another seam-bowling option in conditions that offered some swing during the Punjab-Delhi match. If Punjab can look beyond Hussey's $1.4mn price tag, they may consider a swap.

Bangalore have qualified for the play-offs, but are still fighting to be in the top two. So there shouldn't be too much experimentation with their winning combination. With Tillakaratne Dilshan gone, 21-year-old South African Rilee Rossouw may get a call-up.

In the spotlight

The last time Piyush Chawla bowled to Chris Gayle, he was greeted with two thumping sixes, but got his man in the end, albeit after Gayle had already taken the game away from Punjab. This time, Chawla is coming off his best Twenty20 performance. Will Gilchrist risk throwing him the ball early to remove Gayle?

Zaheer Khan has not had the same kind of impact on the IPL that he had on the World Cup, or for that matter any series he plays for India. Praveen Kumar, though, got some prodigious swing at this ground, and it would be just like Zaheer to take on the responsibility of removing the core of a top-heavy Punjab line-up.

Prime numbers

• Paul Valthaty is two runs ahead of Chris Gayle in the run charts, so Tuesday's game will be a shoot-out for the orange cap. Gayle, of course, has played five less matches 
• Praveen Kumar's four maidens is the highest for any bowler in a single season of the IPL. Yet somehow his economy-rate is 7.70.
• Out of six IPL innings in Dharamsala, five have seen scores of more than 170

Chatter

"Seriously though, Punjab really take a brother in to the mountains. It's the coldest shower I ever had in my life. No TV. Hill and gully bus ride!"
Chris Gayle lets his fans on Twitter know about his living conditions in Dharamsala

"Valthaty has an attacking style of play and in such a style results are always inconsistent. I know this because I'm speaking through personal experience."
Adam Gilchrist identifies with his opening partner

RCA, Rajasthan Royals to meet over Warne comments

The Rajasthan Cricket Association has reacted strongly to Shane Warne's comments

The Rajasthan Cricket Association and Rajasthan Royals will meet in Mumbai on Tuesday in a move prompted by the BCCI to find a solution to their public conflict that erupted after the Sawai Mansingh Stadium pitch was switched for the game against Chennai Super Kings last week. The meeting follows RCA's rejection of an apology offered by the Rajasthan franchise, with the state board also threatening further action if the matter was not resolved to its satisfaction.

Since the pitch was changed for the May 9 game, Shane Warne, captain of Rajasthan, and Sanjay Dixit, the honorary secretary of the RCA, have engaged in a war of words that has been fought, in public, private and through the media. The dispute has grown to involve Lalit Modi, who was Dixit's predecessor and opponent at RCA, and who has maintained good relations with Warne on Twitter.

In his latest salvo on the micro-blogging site, Warne posted on Sunday to ask his fans to "wait till the end of IPL and I will say everything he promised and went back on his word about to the Royals. Unfortunately it is all about Dixit ego! RR has been fantastic for RCA - it's about RR not Dixit." To which Dixit replied: "I want to hear them too. Be sure to back it up with evidence, though."

Meanwhile Modi was re-posting a number of comments from other Twitter users critical of Dixit, such as one that read: "a quick way up the ladder in BCCI, is to publicly defame @LalitKModi and everyone he knows, don't believe me ask @sanjay_dixit." The RCA secretary was quick to respond to Modi directly, writing, "Bloody fugitive. Come back to India and I will give you your just desserts."

The Twitter exchange came after the RCA complainedto the BCCI and IPL that Warne reportedly abused Dixit after his team's loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore in Jaipur on Wednesday. The Times of Indiareported that RCA venue director Narendra Joshi had written to IPL's chief operating officer Sundar Raman, alleging that Warne had publicly abused Dixit by calling him "a liar and egoistic" and demanded action against Warne.

Rajasthan subsequently sent an email apology on May 14 to Dixit, in which the team said it would takedisciplinary action against Warne, who had also apologised for "any distress caused". However, according to Dixit, the franchise has refused to say what that disciplinary action would be, something he considers unacceptable. "We asked them what action they were going to take, but they never divulged it," Dixit told ESPNcricinfo. "They are playing diversionary tactics." Rajasthan Royals did not respond to phone calls or text messages seeking comment.

Dixit said there has been no communication with the franchise since Sunday and in the wake of Rajasthan's silence, he has threatened to take further action "because we want to put an end to these kinds of incidents. We cannot have players coming and abusing senior officials just because they don't get what they want."

Warne's alleged tirade has its genesis in Dixit's refusal to have the match against Bangalore played on a different pitch to the one on which Rajasthan had lost to Chennai. The pitch for both the Chennai and Bangalore games was flat, unlike the slow and low tracks for Rajasthan's first five home games, and had a short boundary, a switch that Warne had criticised after the Chennai match, saying he had never before been told which pitch to use in the four years of the IPL

At the time, Dixit contradicted Warne, saying the BCCI has always had the final say on which pitch is to be used. "The BCCI has already clarified that the pitch comes under the purview of the pitch committee and curator. So, how could I have acceded to his demand?" Dixit told the Times of India. "His behaviour was totally unjustified and I have asked for action against him."

The BCCI ratified that in a statement after the Chennai game. "Neither of the playing teams has a choice of the wicket, on which to play the game," the statement said. "It is the curator, in consultation with the committee chairman, who prepares the wickets."

The Jaipur pitch first became a topic of discussion after Mumbai Indians were restricted to 94 for 8 on it, and Sachin Tendulkar called the track two-paced. At the time both Warne and Dixit had criticised Mumbai for their comments on the pitch. The BCCI's pitches committee head Venkat Sundaram attended Rajasthan's next home game, and took the decision to switch the pitch for the Chennai game. The same pitch was then used for Rajasthan's last home game, which was also Warne's last match in Jaipur, and Rajasthan were once again comprehensively beaten.

Deccan end Pune's slim hopes

Sunny Sohal put on 67 for the opening wicket with Shikhar Dhawan

A bowling attack having four Test bowlers bowled to its world-class potential for once and Deccan Chargers' batting did not stumble chasing a middling total to end Pune Warriors' slim hopes of making the play-offs.

Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma gave the Pune top- and middle-order a complete working over, each posing various problems of flight, turn, pace and bounce. For once, Daniel Christian was much more than just the supporting cast, and the result was that apart from the opening over, there was only one team that dominated most of the match, and it wasn't Pune. Had it not been for Mitchell Marsh's counterattacking innings, Pune would have struggled even more.

After Kumar Sangakkara began with JP Duminy in his last IPL game, the introduction of Steyn and Ishant was the start of Pune's woes. Manish Pandey looked as out of place as a bargain hunter in a fixed-price store, top-edging half-hearted pulls and slashing wildly over slip.

Jesse Ryder looked much more comfortable, but he fell to a blinder from Ravi Teja at cover, who dived to his left to pouch a powerful drive. Sourav Ganguly did not last long. His first attempt to carve Christian over extra cover resulted in a swing-and-miss. The next one resulted in a simple chance to Ojha at mid-off. Ojha foxed Pandey with one that came in to uproot middle stump.

Pune were already in trouble at 45 for 3 when they ran in to Mishra, Deccan's most successful bowler this season, and the architect of their surprise win over Mumbai Indians. The first delivery struck Robin Uthappa on the pads as he missed the flick, the fourth was a loopy legbreak that dipped on him and produced a fatal leading edge that popped to Mishra. The fifth was even better. It was tossed up outside off stump and Mithun Manhas set himself up for the cut, expecting it to turn away. To his horror, it was the googly that turned in and bowled him off the inside edge as Pune slipped to 45 for 5.

Match Meter DC Pune lose 5 for 14 Amit Mishra takes two in two as Pune crumble from to 31 for 0 to 45 for 5 to surrender the initiative early DC Yuvraj goes too Pune's hopes of a turnaround recede as a solid-looking Yuvraj Singh goes caught behind for a brisk 23 DCPW Marsh takes Pune to 136 Mitchell Marsh hammers three sixes in his 37 off 28 balls to lift Deccan to a fighting 136 for 9 DC Deccan openers in control Shikhar Dhawan and Sunny Sohal put on 67 in 8.1 overs, and Kumar Sangakkara and JP Duminy capitalise on the solid start as Deccan win by six wickets  Advantage Honours even

Once again, it was down to Yuvraj Singh to lift Pune out of the hole the other batsmen had dug. Yuvraj looked the part, slamming Ojha for consecutive boundaries in the tenth over, but he could not hang around for long, top-edging a wild pull off Christian to Sangakkara.

Marsh showed glimpses of why he is talked about so much, smacking the spinners for sixes after having taken his time to settle. Deccan managed 34 runs off the last three overs, courtesy Marsh and Wayne Parnell, and that lifted them to a fighting total which they would have gladly taken at 45 for 5. Deccan hadn't won a match chasing this season, and Pune hadn't won while setting a target. The latter trend was to continue.

Pune's only hope was to rattle Deccan's brittle batting line-up early but with both Shikhar Dhawan and Sunny Sohal managing to perform to expectation, their slender hopes of making the play-offs started to disappear. The Deccan openers stuck to their usual selves; Dhawan chugged smoothly to 28 before throwing it away, Sohal threatened to do so throughout his 34 before Rahul Sharma trapped him leg-before.

While Dhawan drove and punched for delightful boundaries through extra cover, Sohal did what he does best, swing at everything, hit some and miss some. There were sixes over extra cover and long-on; he also earned a wide for height as he fell away trying to flail at a short ball from two feet outside leg stump. An opening stand of 67 in 49 deliveries meant Pune needed Deccan to fall apart like they themselves had earlier, but Sangakkara and Duminy ensured Pune were firmly shut out of the game, and knocked out of the race for the play-offs. The only thing Deccan were left wondering was how their season could have gone if their potential had been realised earlier

IPL TV ratings continue to plunge

Mumbai Indians continued to be the biggest draw

The 2011 IPL continued to take a beating in the television ratings stakes, with the average rating for the first 49 games dropping 25.52% from the previous year across six key markets.

The average Television Viewer Rating (TVR), a time-weighted figure which accounts for time spent watching by viewers and the number of viewers, was 3.94 across the cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, down from 5.29 in 2010, according to TAM Sports, a division of TAM Media Research, the leading television ratings agency in India. It is the first time the average ratings for the IPL have fallen below 4.

A report by IIFL Institutional Equities, a brokerage firm, said that tournament ratings have fallen because of a combination of too much cricket and the shuffling of players between the teams, which has diluted fan loyalty. However, Akash Chattopadhyay, an analyst with IIFL who co-wrote the report, expects the ratings to pick up as the tournament enters its final stages. "We are of the opinion that ratings may pick up during the last knock-out match -- to the tune of 8 TVR (television ratings points). But overall, the series would be nowhere close to the first edition."

Ratings  Universe: The total number of people in a defined target audience (in this particular case, the universe includes all cable and satellite viewers in the six metros). Reach: The number of individuals in the universe who watched at least one minute of a particular game or a particular show. It is typically expressed in percentage terms. For example, if 1000 out of a universe of 10,000 watched at least one minute of a game, the reach would be (1000/10,000) x 100 or 10%. TVR: It is a time-weighted figure which accounts for time spent by viewers in addition to the total number of viewers. So you could have a higher TVR because more people watched a particular game or you could have a higher TVR because the same number of people watched the game, but each person watched more of the game than before. India's cable and satellite TV audience is 70 million and its terrestrial audience is 140 million.

Another sign of the IPL's loosening grip on the attention of the viewer has been the strength of the Hindi general entertainment genre (Hindi GEC). In years past, the IPL has siphoned women away from their soaps but this season the Hindi entertainment channels' share of total viewership has been steady. It was 26% in the month leading up to the tournament and 25% during the first month of the IPL. Instead, Set Max has stolen viewers away from the sports channels, whose share has dropped from 11% during the World Cup to 1% while the Hindi movie genre, to which Set Max belongs, has seen its share rise from 10 to 18%.

The two matches that were the biggest draws between May 1 and May 7 both involved Mumbai Indians. Their win over Pune Warriors had the highest rating of 5.39, with 21 million people tuning in to watch, suggesting that a strong regional rivalry could develop between the teams. The second most popular game was Mumbai's win over Delhi Daredevils that knocked the latter out of the race for the play-offs. It had a TVR of 4.95, and also drew 21 million viewers.

The least popular game over the last week was Chennai Super Kings' trouncing of Rajasthan Royals that was surrounded by the controversy over the selection of the pitch for the game. It was watched by 12 million and had a TVR of just 2.09.