Venue and Conditions: Friday’s IPL action comes from Ahmedabad where the Rajasthan Royals take on the Deccan Chargers. This is only the third IPL fixture to be played at this stadium and the wicket has proved to be a difficult one on which to get the ball away. It's a slow track, arguably the slowest in the IPL and the Deccan batsmen may find the adjustment difficult. Team News: The Royals lost their first three matches and were dealt a double injury blow when the South African skipper Graeme Smith and Hampshire's Dimitri Mascarenhas were ruled out for the duration after their second contest. Later, they have just completed back to back wins over the Knight Riders and the Kings XI to kick start their tournament. The squad has been trimmed to 19 players which has seen Damien Martyn head home but there is talk of Shane Watson arriving in the not to distant future which would provide another boost to their chances. The Deccan Chargers have reeled off successive wins against Super Kings, Kings XI and the Daredevils after an opening day loss to the Knight Riders. The evergreen Adam Gilchrist is doing a sterling job and he is being ably assisted by the experienced duo of Andrew Symonds and Herschelle Gibbs both of whom seem to be playing their way back into form. Gilchrist, Symonds, Gibbs and Rohit Sharma have all been amongst the runs at times so far but only Gilchrist with a top score of 54 and Symonds with 53 have made a half century. With the ball, Chaminda Vaas has eight wickets and an economy rate a shade over 6 per over whilst Symonds and Sharma have kept things pretty tight with economy rates of just over 6.5. Symonds produced a man of the match performance in the recent game against Delhi scoring a quick fire 35 … [Read more...]