Toss Rajasthan Royals chose to bowl v Deccan Chargers
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
A visibly slimmer Shane Warne, with his eyebrows tweezed and sporting a brighter shade of blue than last year, kicked off Rajasthan Royal's 2011 season by winning the toss and choosing to field against Deccan Chargers. The winners of the first two editions of the IPL will clash in sweltering conditions in Hyderabad, on a pitch with a slight tinge of grass.
Warne was clearly interested in testing whether the track had anything in it for the bowlers early on, while Kumar Sangakkara, the new Deccan captain, believed it would retain its character through the day.
Both sides put their faith in the newly emerging Indian domestic talent. Rajasthan included Ashok Menaria, Abhishek Raut, Stuart Binny and Amit Paunikar in the side, while Shaun Tait was a surprising omission. Sangakkara drafted Bharat Chipli, Ishank Jaggi and Shikhar Dhawan into his starting XI.
If Deccan are to win today, they will break the mother of all IPL jinxes: they are yet to win a game at their home ground, the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, in two seasons of the IPL and one edition of the Champions League. Additionally, they have never beaten Rajasthan Royals in six prior games. That said, they have had a close-to-complete revamp of personnel since the last season.
Deccan Chargers: Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, JP Duminy, Bharat Chipli, Daniel Christian, D Ravi Teja, Ishank Jaggi, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma
Rajasthan Royals: Abhishek Raut, Amit Paunikar (wk), Ashok Menaria, Ross Taylor, Rahul Dravid, Amit Singh, Stuart Binny, Johan Botha, Jacob Oram, Shane Warne (capt), Siddarth Trivedi
