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Kings XI Punjab this season after a disappointing performance in their opening game. Valthaty was a surprise promotion to the opening slot, instead of the regular Shaun Marsh, and he answered the call with a blistering start, keeping his team on par with the required rate in the middle overs and surging again at the death to complete victory after achieving a spectacular century.

At 27, with just one List A game and 13 Twenty20 matches, Valthaty had been on the sidelines of the Mumbai team on India’s domestic circuit. His previous highest in the IPL had been a score of 6, but whatever he must have done at the practice sessions ahead of this game sparked a potentially career-changing turn of events.

after they had squandered the perfect start of two wickets off the first two balls to concede 188. The sight of an unfamiliar face walking out with Adam Gilchrist raised eyebrows, but it didn’t take too long for Valthaty to justify his promotion.

Deccan Chargers also lost their first match of the season, a much veaier feat as they went down to Rajasthan Royals by 8 wickets. Deccan Chargers batted first at could only make 137/8. Rajasthan Royals chased down the target easily inside 19 overs.

Captain Kumar Sangakkara has been largely criticised with opening with spin as Deccan looked to defend their small total. Ojha opened the bowling and eventually finished with figures of 0-44. Sangakkara will also be disappointed with his batting performance scoring a duck from 3 balls. One big positive from Deccan was the bowling of Dale Steyn who secured excellent figures of 2-18 off his four overs.

Both teams will hope to win to make sure they keep up with the other teams in there group, however IPL 2011 is a long season meaning that if one team did lose there is plenty of time to find their form and surge up the table.

CHENNAI: There's always an added flavour of southern rivalry to a Tamil Nadu-Karnataka contest. The Indian Premier League is more about franchises, but if you ask the owners of both Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore, they will say that this is one contest they would hate to lose.

The local crop of the CSK team, too, harbours similar sentiments. They play Karnataka in different competitions through the year and there's always the added zing to be the best side of the zone when they are up against the boys from Bangalore. The likes of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina have been in the mix for four years now and they understand what their franchisee expects out of them in this needle clash.

RCB, though, has undergone quite a few changes this year. The likes of Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey and R Vinaykumar are gone and it is difficult for the new crop to understand the sentiments of a Karnataka-Tamil Nadu scuffle. However, Kumble is pretty much a part of the RCB think-tank and one can be rest assured that the hard taskmaster will tell the boys what is expected from them in this prestige fight.

And the very fact that RCB have lost two games in a row should also make them all the more keen to turn the tables on CSK. Though the IPL is a long journey and there have been quite a few comebacks after initial jitters, Daniel Vettori's boys cannot risk another failure in this game.

The fact that Tillakaratne Dilshan hasn't been at his menacing best at the top of the order has left the team management a little worried. The team banks heavily on the Sri Lankan and though he has got a half-century against Mumbai Indians, RCB hope for something more from the opener. CSK, on the other hand, have been boosted by the addition of Doug Bollinger to lead their pace attack, but it's to be seen whether they play him right away against RCB.

Royal Challengers Bangalore fell short by 33 runs trying to force the pace at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday, handing Deccan Chargers their first win on home soil in the Indian Premier League.But then, facing up to the world's fastest and a clever exponent of his trade is no mean task and it was no surprise that Royal Challengers wilted in face of Dale Steyn's sustained onslaught upfront and at death.It probably could have been a similar tale to tell in the first game too had Deccan Chargers set Rajasthan Royals a stiff target. But with Bharat Chipli weighing in with an unbeaten 61 (35b) and the last five overs yielding 61 runs, Deccan Chargers came out swinging in their third game of the tournament as RCB required 176 to win.The 17th over of both innings better illustrates the difference between the teams. While Zaheer Khan was carted for 15 runs — including three successive boundaries by Chipli — Steyn breathed fire. RCB needed 68 runs when the South African started the 17th over of the innings; managed 10 and lost Cheteshwar Pujara and Johan van der Wath to the fifth and sixth deliveries of the over.Skipper Daniel Vettori averted a split hat-trick in the 19th over and better sense prevailed over Ryan Ninan as he got out of harm's way as a Steyn screamer thudded into Kumar Sangakkara's gloves — the bowler immediately apologised. The man of the match clearly relished bowling here and there was no let up in hostility.With good bounce and carry, the conditions were ideally exploited by the Chargers' Ishant Sharma, who struck a fine rhythm, dismissed Tillakaratne Dilshan, and bowled his quota of four overs at one stretch, and Manpreet Gony, who replaced Pragyan Ojha in the line-up.