IPL 5: Pune can't afford to lose against Mumbai

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Pune: After finding their mojo against a lowly Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians will look to take advantage of Pune Warriors India's three-match losing run and pocket crucial points on Thursday as the race to the Indian Premier League play-offs intensifies.

On the whole, Mumbai's performance cannot be termed as path-breaking, but the team, especially captain Harbhajan Singh, lifted itself up in the last match against Deccan. In fact, Harbhajan’s spell of 2 for 13 in four overs was the biggest plus in a win that pushed Mumbai up to third in the points table with 10 points from nine games.

KKR gag on players' media interaction

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Kolkata: Ahead of their keenly-awaited IPL clash with the Sourav Ganguly-led Pune Warriors India, the Kolkata Knight Riders management has placed a gag order on their players for interacting with the media. "We have some rules and regulations that we are following," Knight Riders' Bangladeshi recruit Shakib Al Hasan said when contacted.

The team had signed with a PR firm to arrange players' interaction with media, but the agency now says they are helpless as the KKR management has stopped responding to their queries. "We had sent a list of media requests for players' interviews, but the management says that no player is available now or [they are] not getting time. I can't help. I am just waiting for the tournament to get over. I feel we have no role [to play] now," said an official of the PR firm.

Despite inviting sports journalists in a promotional party on Wednesday night, the KKR management did not allow them to interact with its players. As a result, a section of the media boycotted the event as they were denied a possible opportunity to interact with Manoj Tiwary, Laxmipathy Balaji, Eoin Morgan, Brendon McCullum and Ryan ten Doeschate.

After a lot of persuasion by the PR agency, team director Joy Bhattacharya allowed Tiwary to interact, but that too for just two questions. Repeated attempts to take the matter to franchise’s CEO Venky Mysore went in vain.

The excitement and interest for Saturday's clash is palpable, with city's cricket idol, Ganguly, in the visitors’ camp.

IPL 5: CSK batsmen hurting team's title defence

The fifth edition of the Indian Premier League has been a poor one for the defending champions Chennai Super Kings so far, who have performed below par despite having some big players in their ranks. Once touted as favourites to complete the hat-trick of the title, Chennai are fifth in the points table and on current form, it seems difficult for them to qualify for the play-offs.

The biggest worry for CSK has been the form of their batsmen. Murali Vijay has been the poorest of the lot and has been dropped from the team. He was the one of the key members that helped CSK win the last two edition of the IPL and MS Dhoni's team has missed him for sure. Apart from Faf du Plessis, none of the players so far have really shown the mettle and consistency.

Chris Gayle boycotts county contract, will join national team

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New Delhi: Former West Indies captain Chris Gayle scrapped his deal with Somerset county and made himself available for the national team and virtually ended his year-long stand-off with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

But Gayle, who is playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB), in a statement said that he is committed to West Indies cricket and told Somerset that he will not be honouring the contract. Gayle told the West Indies selectors that he will be available for the ODI series in England after the IPL.