The bowlers had also done their due, with an exceptional performance by Australian pacer Dirk Nannes. Along with the rest of the bowling lineup featuring Farveez Maharoof, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Amit Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan and Yo Mahesh, Kings XI Punjab had been restricted to a total score of 142.

The Daredevils batting order had also delivered in the match. Gambhir’s 72 was aided by Dinesh Karhik’s 18-ball 20 and Mithun Manhas’ 24-ball 31. However, their premier batsmen Virender Sehwag, Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers, who failed to make a mark in the first game, will be looking to demolish the Royal’s bowling order.

The Royals batting lineup, meanwhile, stands in sharp contrast to that of the Daredevils. Although Royals managed to give the Mumbai Indians a scare in their previous match, the lions share of the runs scored were by Yusuf Pathan, who scored the fastest century in the tournament with a 37-ball 100. He was assisted at the other end by Paras Dongra who scored 41 runs.

To defeat the Daredevils, the same effort needs to be put in by other in the batting order such as Graeme Smith and Swapnil Asnodkar.

The Royals bowling department also fails to intimidate, except for Australian pacer Shaun Tait and Dimitry Mascarenhas. Even their skipper Shane Warne’s bowling seemed lacklustre although the Daredevils would do well to look out for him.

Karnataka, the home team, will meet Punjab King’s XI owned by Preity Zinta. To add more colour to the match, Kannada actors also will be there to cheer the crowd. Actor-director Kichcha Sudeep,a good friend of Dravid will be a part of the crowd. So will be actresses Aindrita Ray and Radhika Pandit. Shivaraj Kumar, Puneet’s brother, is said to be adjusting his shooting dates to be part of the IPL matches.. He is a cricketer who had played for league matches in Chennai. Actress Ramya says the cheer and excitement will last until the Bangalore Royal Challengers win the trophy. Ramya will be sitting on a terrace with 800 team supporters and Puneet along with over 3,000 cheering supporters, hopes that the team will walk away with the trophy this time around.

Shilpa has also decided to travel where her team goes to in the course of the tourney, unlike Shah Rukh Khan who will watch his team perform only at Kolkata.

Conflict over whether to attend next month’s IPL tournament saw Australian players attacking each other during a security briefing, according to media reports.

It is understood that players like Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist clashed with Ponting during the meeting.

The players have been advised that the current arrangements are not satisfactory, following legitimate terror threats.

Anyone who boycotts will almost certainly be barred from future tournaments and players such as Lee, Warne, Gilchrist, Hayden, Dirk Nannes and Brad Hodge stand to lose millions of dollars.

Younger players with Cricket Australia contracts might not feel the same compulsion.

Australian Cricketers Association chief executive Paul Marsh was asked if the players would stick together once a decision was made.

The 23-year-old Ashwin, who is also a useful batsman lower down the order, was the only new face in the squad which will miss the services of prolific opener Gautam Gambhir because of a groin injury.

Lanky Baroda all-rounder Yusuf Pathan, who hit a double century in West Zone’s record run chase in Duleep Trophy final, and Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar forced their way back into the squad announced by BCCI secretary N Srinivasan after a selection committee meeting.

Seasoned off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has made himself unavailable to attend his sister’s wedding while dashing batsman Yuvraj Singh was also not considered as he has not recovered from a wrist injury.

The selection of Ashwin was very much on the cards after Harbhajan had made himself unavailable. The Tamil Nadu spinner has so far captured 103 wickets in 28 first class matches for an average of 29.43.

Modi said on his ‘Twitter’ page that tender forms could be collected from the BCCI/IPL office from February 21 and the bids would be opened on March 8 in Mumbai.

He said Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamshala, Indore, Cuttack, Gwalior and Visakhapatnam are the current cities with stadia that can have bids.

“Rajkot, Pune, Baroda and Cochin (Kochi), which have new stadia going under construction, are also eligible to be bid for,” he said.

The base price for the new teams would be $225 million each, he added.

Modi said the new team owners and management would have access to IPL III so that they can prepare accordingly for the next edition of the cash-awash league.

“The threats of the past 24 hours have certainly got me thinking twice and is of deep concern to athletes across several sports,” Warne said. “If the threats are proven to be real, then organisers of the IPL may look at moving the tournament. We moved it last year at short notice (to South Africa), so it can be done. There is no way organisers will risk the safety of players and officials,” he added.

It was Warne who had a few days ago urged the Australian cricketers to turn up for the event without any fear. Warne said he is waiting for the advice of Australian cricket’s security expert Reg Dickason before making a decision on whether to travel to India.

Twenty Australians, including Shane Watson, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds and Warne himself are signed to play in the IPL.

“We’ll be staying in hotels and travelling on buses and as we saw with the Sri Lankan team in Lahore (which was attacked last year), it can be dangerous,” Warne was quoted as saying by ‘Herald Sun’.

Terror outfits Huji and Al-Qaida have warned of attacks against foreign teams during the hockey World Cup, Indian Premier League and the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi here from October 3-14.

Standing by his comments, SRK asserted he believed that every Indian would agree that India is a “good country” and that “everyone is welcome as a guest”, but at the same time said too much importance was being attached to the words of “just an actor”.

“It makes me feel that activities like this are unhealthy, undemocratic, its insensitive but this is the world is and you can only say what you believe in and stand by it and hopefully I will have the strength to do so,” SRK told reporters when asked about the Shiv Sena protests back home.

“As an Indian I’m not ashamed, guilty or unhappy about what I said neither am I sorry,” he said.

Shiv Sena activists reacted angrily terming it an issue of patriotism, burnt the posters of his upcoming film ‘My Name is Khan,’ and took their protest to his bungalow in Mumbai.

The party has threatened to not allow the screening of the film, unless the actor apologises.

“Shah Rukh should go to Pakistan if he wants to speak in favour of Pakistani players,” said Shiv Sena leader Anil Parab as protesters displayed a ‘ticket’ from Mumbai to Pakistan.

Shiva Sena also targetted RSS over its spokesperson Ram Madhav’s statement about protecting north Indians against any discrimination in Mumbai, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Monday asked the Sangh not to interfere on the issue of Maharashtra capital.

“Ram Madhav should not worry about Mumbai issue and should not teach us patriotism and unity,” Uddhav told reporters said in Mumbai on Monday. “During 1992 Hindu-Muslim riots, Sena protected Hindus but where was RSS that time,” Uddhav said.

“It remains a Deccan Chargers vs Kolkata Knight Riders match but instead of Hyderabad, it would be held in Mumbai. The opening game, the opening ceremony and the opening gala dinner (on March 11) are very important for us. People from all over the world are coming and we are going to make sure that everything is in order. We don’t want to take any chances,” IPL commissioner Lalit Modi told reporters on Friday.

“There are no changes to other matches, everything looks fine. We have worked it out with franchises and the teams and decided that match would be held in Mumbai,” he added. The IPL opener is scheduled on March 12.

Meanwhile, Modi said Delhi would remain a venue for the cash-awash Twenty20 event despite the one-year ban on it after the ground’s pitch was deemed “unfit” by the ICC yesterday. Modi said despite the international ban on Kotla, where an India-Sri Lanka ODI had to be abandoned due to the pitch’s dangerous bounce, the ground will host IPL matches.

Modi said the auction for two new teams would be held next month.

“We are hoping that by the first week of February, we will have two new teams auctioned,” he said.

The auction was held on Tuesday and IPL commissioner Lalit Modi conceded the biggest question facing the franchisees was the availability of the players they would buy and Rajasthan Royals co-owner Shilpa Shetty said her team did not bid for any Pakistani players simply because they were not sure about their availability.

“We were not convinced about their availability and that’s why we did not want to take any risk,” Shilpa said after her team bought veteran Australian Damien Martyn for $100,000.

Citing the instance of Sohail Tanvir, who played a crucial role in Rajasthan Royal’s fairytale win in the inaugural IPL, Shilpa said there was no question of bidding for a player who might not be available in the tournament.

Expectedly Pakistani cricketers have reacted angrily to the snub with current Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi saying that the IPL’s attitude was disappointing.

Afridi, who was supposed to be the main attraction for franchisees at the IPL auction in Mumbai, said from Brisbane where Pakistan is touring Australia at the moment, he was disappointed and upset with the way things panned out.

“The way I see it, the IPL and India have made fun of us and our country by treating us this way,” Afridi said. “We are the Twenty20 World Champions and for me the attitude of the franchisees was disappointing. I feel bad for the Indian people who I am sure wanted to see us play in the IPL this year,” Afridi said is quoted by an Indian news agency.

Afridi was the first player to be put on auction with a base price of $250,000, but no franchise was interested in buying him.

Franchises preferred West Indian, South African and Australian players while ignoring the 11 Pakistani players who were available in the auction for sale. The franchisees said Pakistani players’ availability was not certain and they couldn’t risk their money on them.

Afridi was among the batch of Pakistani players who played in the first IPL season for Deccan Chargers.

Others include all-rounder Abdul Razzaq.

Tanvir who was the best bowler in the inaugural IPL and played a big role in helping Rajasthan Royals win the title, said he felt humiliated and angry with what transpired at the auction.

Pollard: Playing with Tendulkar an honour to me

For West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard, who was bought by Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians for a whopping $750,000 in Tuesday’s auction, chance to share the dressing room with Sachin Tendulkar came as an additional bonanza.

“It is an honour to play with Sachin Tendulkar. I have grown up as a kid by watching him in the television,” Pollard told an Indian TV news channel after he was sold to the Mumbai team during first round of the IPL auction in Mumbai.

Bond and Pollard are costliest

Apart from Pollard, New Zealand paceman Shane Bond fetched the biggest price during the player auction held in Mumbai on Monday.

In other significant buys, Deccan Chargers got West Indies paceman Kemar Roach for $720,000. And Delhi Daredevils signed up South African paceman Wayne Parnell for $610,000.