Indian Premier League 2011: Team Squads

New entrants Sahara Pune Warriors registered all 30 players for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League which will start from April 8 while Shah Rukh Khan co-owned Kolkata Knight Riders which failed to make it to the semifinals during the past three editions have only 20 on their roster.

IPL team squads:

Chennai Super Kings (24): Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramanium Badrinath, Joginder Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Aniruddha Shrikant, Ganapathi Vignesh, K Vasudevdas, Shadb Jakati, Vijaykumar Yomahesh, (Foreign) Albie Morkel, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Doug Bollinger, Scott Styris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis

Mumbai Indians (23): Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Ali Murtuza, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pawan Suyal, Rajagopal Sathish, Surul Kanwar, Surya Kumar Yadav, T Suman, Yazvendra Singh Chahal (Foreign) Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds, Davy Jacobs, James Franklin, Moises Henriques, Alden Blizzard, Dilhara Fernando

Kolkata Knight Riders (20): Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Jaidev Unadkat, Iqbal Abdulla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manvinder Singh Bisla, Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Sarabjit Ladda, Shami Ahmed, Shreevats Goswami (Foreign) Jacques Kallis, Brad Haddin, Shakib Al Hassan, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate, James Pattinson.

Sahara Pune Warriors (30): Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Ashish Nehra, Murali Kartik, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Bhuvenshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Ekalavya Dwivedi, Ganesh Gaikwad, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Harshad Khadiwale, Kamran Khan, Manish Pandey, Mithun Manhas, Mohnish MIshra, Rahul Sharma, Sachin Rana, Shrikant Wagh, Shrikant Mundhe, Imtiyaz Ahmed (Foreign) Graeme Smith, Tim Paine, Angelo Mathews, Nathan McCullum, Callum Ferguson, Wayne Parnell, Mitchell Marsh, Jerome Taylor, Alfonso Thomas, Jesse Ryder

Kochi Tuskers Kerala (27): VVS Laxman, S Sreesanth, RP Singh, Parthiv Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Ramesh Powar, R Vinay Kumar, B Akhil, Chandan Madan, Deepak Chowghule, Kedar Jadhav, Raiphi Gomez, Sushant Marathe, Tanmay Srivastava, Y Gnanswara Rao, Yashpal Singh, Prashant Padmanabahan, (Foreign) Mahela Jayawardene, Brendon McCullum, Steven Smith, Muttiah Muralitharan, Brad Hodge, Thisara Perera, Steve O'Keefe, Owais Shah, Michael Klinger, John Hastings

Royal Challengers Bangalore (25): Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan, Saurabh Tiwary, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mohammed Kaif, Arun Karthik, CM Gautham, Abrar Kazi, Mayank Agarwal, Bharath Narayan, Raju Bhatkal, Sreenath Aravind, Ryan Ninan, Asad Khan Pathan, (Foreign) Tillekratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers, Daniel Vettori, Dirk Nannes, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Johan van der Wath, Rilee Rossouw, Nuwan Pradeep, Jonathan Vandiar

Rajasthan Royals (27): Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan (Foreign) Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait

Deccan Chargers (27): Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Manpreet Gony, Akash Bhandari, Anand Rajan, Ankit Nagendra, Arjun Yadav, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, DB Ravi Teja, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Ishank Jaggi, Ishan Malhotra, Jaydev Shah, Kedar Devdhar, Sunny Sohal (Foreign) Kevin Pietersen, Cameron White, Kumar Sangakkara, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn, Daniel Christian, Chris Lynn, Juan Theron, Michael Lumb

Kings XI Punjab (23): Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty, Shalabh Srivastava, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Amit Yadav (Foreign) Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Stuart Broad, Ryan Harris, Dimitri Masceranhas, Nathan Remington.

Delhi Daredevils (29): Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha, Ajit Agarkar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Venugopal Rao, Aavishkar Salvi, Prashant Naik, Rajesh Pawar, Robin Bist, S Sriram, Tejashwi Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Vikash Mishra, Vivek Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem (Foreign) David Warner, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Aaron Finch, Mathew Wade, Roloef van der Merwe, Andrew McDonald, Travis Birt, Collin Ingram, Robert Frylinck.

Yuvraj to lead Pune Warriors

India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh was on Tuesday named skipper of the Pune Warriors squad for the 4th season of the Indian Premier League starting April 8 2011.

The new entrant in the hugely successful league also announced its 30-member squad that includes, among others, Graeme Smith, Nathan McCullum, Wayne Parnell, Tim Paine, Jesse Ryder and Angelo Mathews.

Besides Yuvraj, Ashish Nehra, Robin Uthappa and Murali Karthik are the other capped players from India.

Callum Ferguson, Mitchelle Marsh, Jerome Taylor and Alfonso Thomas are also part of the squad.

Ganguly retires from all forms of cricket

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, who was snubbed at the IPL auctions, has retired from all forms of cricket.

His decision came after no team picked him at the IPL 4 players' auction held in January 2010.

On Friday, IPL's Governing Council, due to protests from Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, hindered what could have been a back-door entry for Ganguly as the Kochi IPL team was keen on roping him in.

Sourav Ganguly, who announced his retirement from international cricket after the Test series against Australia in November 2008, continued to play for West Bengal and KKR.

Apart from being a brilliant batsman, Ganguly has been India's most successful Test skipper, having led the team in a record 49 Test matches, out of which India won in 21 matches.

England win thriller to set Twenty20 record

Debutant Chris Woakes guided England to a record 8th successive Twenty20 win as England inflicted more torture on Australia with a final ball one-wicket victory at the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday.

Even with all-rounder Shane Watson's best efforts to single-handedly lift the home side to victory, 21-year-old Woakes (19 not out) was the hero as he hit the winning run from the final ball of the England innings.

After Australia posted 157-4, with Watson top-scoring with 59 from 31 balls, England wobbled in the chase as Watson picked up four wickets, but Woakes' cool head enabled them to reach 158-9 and snatch the win.

England previously shared the record for most successive Twenty20 international wins with South Africa and Pakistan and the result follows hard on the heels of their historic 3-1 Ashes triumph over the embattled Australians.

England skipper Paul Collingwood heralded the new record.

"Eight wins in this form of the game is very special," he said. "It was a great game of cricket, it had everything. I thought we probably should have seen it through a little bit easier, but Twenty20 cricket can get a little bit like that towards the end."

Watson took little solace from his own form and said the Australians should have posted a higher total.

With wickets falling at the other end, Woakes kept his cool when he found himself on strike with his side needing three runs from the last two balls from Watson with only one wicket in hand.

He slashed the next delivery to the cover boundary for two, then drove Watson through the infield for what would have been a boundary had he and number 11 Ajmal Shahzad not completed the winning run first.

Woakes' innings came after Eoin Morgan put England on the path to victory with 43, but the match turned when the left-hander holed out to Watson, who then removed Michael Yardy with the next ball to be on a hat-trick. Watson could scarcely have done more for the home side, with 4-15 from his four overs after his solo effort with the bat.

Big surprise that no one picked Ganguly: Wasim Akram

The snub to Sourav Ganguly in the IPL players’ auction 2011 shocked his former team KKR bowling coach Wasim Akram, who said he expected any of the other franchises to pick the former India skipper for his "experience and leadership qualities".

In a major discomfiture for Ganguly, he was not picked by his home team Kolkata Knight Riders or any of the other franchises after two rounds of bidding last week.

"Sourav is a dear friend of mine. I thought he would be picked up by some franchise for his experience and leadership qualities. But it was a big surprise when he was totally ignored," Akram told 'Mobile ESPN' from Karachi, hinting that KKR never had plans to hire the Prince of Kolkata.

If the ignore to Ganguly shocked Akram, the former Pakistan captain was more shocked when there were no takers for dashing West Indian batsman Chris Gayle.

"I just can't believe it. Gayle is a game-changer but probably never fit the scheme of things for many teams. Maybe, teams think that Gayle does not help youngsters in the side," said Akram.

India beat South Africa by 21 runs

An injury-hit India produced all-round performance to slash up an emphatic 21-run triumph over South Africa in the only twenty20 international.

Playing without regular openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, India ride on a brilliant half-century by Rohit Sharma (53 off 34 balls) and Suresh Raina's racy 23-ball 41 to post a competitive 168 for six after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat.

The visitors then returned to contain South Africa to 147 for nine in the stipulated 20 overs to complete the victory at the Moses Mabhida Stadium here.

Ashish Nehra and Yusuf Pathan chimed in with two wickets each to contribute to the cause.

For South Africa, opener Morne van Wyk blasted a whrilwind 39-ball 67 comprising five fours and as many sixes but he didn't get support from the other end as the hosts fell short by 21 runs in the end.

van Wyk then sent one Ashwin delivery flying over the deep midwicket for a six to complete his half-century in just 24 balls, registering the fastest fifty by a South African in twenty20 cricket.

India and South Africa will next play the five-match ODI series starting here on Wednesday.

Michael Clarke retires from international Twenty20 Cricket

Michael Clarke announced his retirement from T20 international in the fallout from Australia's Ashes humiliation against England on Friday.

Clarke, standing in for injured captain Ricky Ponting, presided over an Australian team thrashed by an innings and 83 runs in the fifth Sydney Test and made the announcement during his post-match press conference.

Cameron White was later named skipper of Australia's side for their two T20 games against England next week, with wicketkeeper Tim Paine his vice-captain.

It was a personal series failure by one of Australia's senior Test batsmen, scoring just 193 runs at 21.44 in nine innings against the dominant English bowling attack.

"I'm retiring from international T20 cricket," Clarke said.

"I guess, looking back on this series, my Test cricket isn't where I want it at the moment.

"This gives me the opportunity to focus wholly and solely on Test cricket and one-day internationals and to use that time to play more domestic or first-class cricket for New South Wales and become a better Test player.

"For me, I've always said Test cricket is the ultimate for me. This gives me that opportunity."

Clarke admitted that even as captain he has struggled in the T20 format of the game, scoring just 419 runs in 23 innings at 22.05.