Before the start of the Indian Premier League the prospects of watching a team led by VVS Laxman and including Gilchrist, Afridi, Gibbs, and Vaas taking on a team led by Yuvraj Singh and comprising of Sangakkara, Jayawardene, and Irfan Pathan would have been nothing less than a Clash of the Titans.

The Deccan Chargers and the Kings from Punjab though have had less than ideal starts to their campaign.

Both teams lost their first few matches but have picked up recently with the Chargers winning their last one convincingly and the Kings winning their last two.

Its a downer that both teams have lost Symonds and Lee since the 2 going toe to toe, or for that matter, Lee bowling to Gilchrist would have been gruelling contests to watch. And Sreesanth also misses his chance of a bowl to Symonds.

But the match still involves some exciting stuff to watch out for:

• Adam Gilchrist and Herchelle Gibbs opening the batting - Pathan & Co. will be trembling at just the thought of this.


• Vaas bowling to the Lankan batting supremos - King Sanga and Jayawardene.


• A battle of the Indian bowling attack - Pathan on one side, RP on the other. Both have attacked for India before. They have for the U19 team as well. Here they are on opposing sides.


• Ajitesh Argal, India's U19 pacer could come in for Lee - he is an exciting prospect.


• RP bowling to Yuvi with Sanga behind the stumps. And Vaasy bowling to Sanga and Gilchrist behind the stumps.


• Will Sreesanth get into Gilly's face? Or is he a changed man after the slap?


• Everyones been waiting for Afridi to fire. After watching Symonds and Gilchrist blaze away, Afridi is raring to go. We could be in for a treat of he fires after Gilly and Gibbs.

This and Preity Zinta and a whole lot more at 2:30PM GMT.

(one of our readers and an ardent admirer of Ms. Zinta pointed out that I had been spelling her name wrong. I made a conscious effort to get it right this time round)