Jaipur: Deccan Chargers cannot afford to relax when they take on Rajasthan Royals on Friday as they have to win every game from now on if they have to move up the Indian Premier League (IPL) ladder.

Chargers have a formidable line-up, but with only two wins in seven matches, they are lying seventh in IPL standings and a the semi-final berth for them looks too far.

Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, have been in terrific form after being jolted by Delhi Daredevils in their first match. Led by shrewd Shane Warne, Royals surprised everybody by registering five consecutive wins to lead the points table for a brief period before they slumped to their second defeat on Wednesday against Mumbai Indians and slumped to second position.

For Chargers it has been a different story though. They tasted their first win after three defeats and again suffered two more loses before their win against Chennai Super Kings in the last match.

Stand-in skipper Adam Gilchrist is in good nick and had led the team well in the absence of injured V.V.S Laxman . Their batting is packed with big hitters like Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi, but till now they have failed to click together till the last match against Super Kings when they reached the 144-run target losing only three wickets.

Young Rohit Sharma has been a revelation for Chargers and became the top scorer in the tournament to claim the Orange Cap after the game.

It has been a stiff competition and Rajasthan Royals know that winning five game in a row was tough and would take their defeat against Mumbai Indians as one bad day in office.

Rajasthan Royals:Shane Warne (captain), Aditya Angle, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Kaif, Kamran Akmal (wicketkeeper), Sumit Khatri, Taruwar Kohli, Justin Langer, Darren Lehmann, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Parag More, Morne Morkel, Pankaj Singh, Munaf Patel, Niraj Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Mahesh Rawat, Anup Revandkar, Dinesh Salunkhe, Jaydev Shah, Graeme Smith, Sohail Tanvir, Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Watson, Younis Khan

Deccan Chargers: V.V.S. Laxman (captain) Sanjay Bangar, Halhadar Das, Herschelle Gibbs, Adam Gilchrist (wicketkeeper), Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna, Pragyan Ojha, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, P.M. Sarvesh Kumar, Shahid Afridi, Rohit Sharma, Chamara Silva, Rudra Pratap Singh, Scott Styris, Andrew Symonds, Chaminda Vaas, Venugopal Rao, Paidikalva Vijaykumar, Arjun Yadav, Nuwan Zoysa

 

Source : IANS