IPL 7: Time for Rajasthan Royals to break free

Abu DhabiRajasthan Royals punched above their weight to finish third in IPL6 But sadly the competition last year will only be remembered for the shenanigans of three of their players mdash S Sreesanth Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila and the tsunami of developments that have resulted in the Board of Control for Cricket in Indiarsquos chief N Srinivasan being ordered by the Supreme Court to stay away from activities of the Board until all investigations into the sordid saga are completeRajasthan Royals led by Rahul Dravid right celebrate a wicket in the last IPL File PicThe trio were accused of working in cahoots with bookies and engaging in spot fixing mdash charges that have already seen Sreesanth and Chavan banned for lifeIt is these memories that the Royals have to contend with throughout this season in their quest for redemption and the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad this evening offers a good opportunity for them to show that whatever happened last season was a bad dreamSpeaking to midday a couple of days ago Royalsrsquo skipper Shane Watson said ldquoWe were doing everything we possibly could to give ourselves the best chance of winning games and to feel like a couple of people in our team were doing things to make winning those games more difficult was something that I had not experienced till date in my careerrdquoHuge challengeNow these are experiences that can jolt the best of sportsmen and the Aussie may well use this nightmare to drive his players to deliver what he thinks they are truly capable ofMeanwhile Rahul Dravid who led by example in the face of extreme challenges post May 16 mdash the day Delhi Police made those damning claims mdash will be mentoring the side this time and the fighter in him would already have prepared the team for the challenges that lie aheadOn paper the Royals have strung together a wellbalanced side and while the onus of keeping them in contention will rest largely on Watson Ajinkya Rahane Stuart Binny Sanju Samson and James Faulkner the addition of players like Steve Smith Rajat Bhatia and Tim Southee will only make them strongerOn the other hand the Sunrisers Hyderabad who went down to the same opponents in the eliminator last season will be looking to avenge their defeat The team boasts of the likes of Shikhar Dhawan Aaron Finch and David Warner at the top while there is Darren Sammy down the order along with India youngsters mdash Ricky Bhui and Manpreet JunejaTheir bowling will be spearheaded by South Africarsquos Dale Steyn along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar while Amit Mishra and Karan Sharma form a good spin attack in the company of Parveez RasoolRRrsquos new boysSteve Smith R 4 crFOR someone who started off as a legspinner Smith has come a long way when it comes to batting And his brilliant fielding abilities make him one of the best players in the shortest format of the game Smith was part of Kochi Pune and RCB in previous editions of the IPL Ironically two of these franchises have shut shopRajat Bhatia R 17 crBhatia is a priceless player to have in the ranks given his neversaydie attitude In the past a lot of teams have underestimated his allround abilities Bhatia will add great value to a lineup which is eager to erase sordid memories of IPL6Tim Southee R 12 crFOR all the belief that T20 is a batsmanrsquos game there have been plenty of instances when bowlers have ruled the roost and thatrsquos where Southeersquos inclusion will boost RRIqbal Abdulla R 65 lakhAbdulla enjoyed reasonable success during his stint with KKR and also won the emerging player award a few years agoLast match key moments 2252013gtgt SRH were 67 for three after 14 overs but managed to score 65 in the last 6 thanks to some hardhitting by Darren Sammy and Thisara Pereragtgt At 501 inside seven overs RR were on course for victory but SRH fought back commendably taking four more wickets giving away only six more runsgtgt Brad Hodge played a blinder for the Royals and his innings of 54 not out off 29 balls made the difference in thefinal analysis