Rajasthan search for winning form

Yusuf Pathan has done more than his bit to keep Rajasthan afloat, but there has been little support from the rest of his mates © AFP The Preview by Shwe Wai May 1, 2009 On last year's form, Rajasthan Royals would have been runaway favourites to walk away with this game. However, no match-up illustrates the difference between last year's tournament and IPL 2009 better than this one: Deccan Charger, the laggards of IPL 2008, are among the top teams this time, while Rajasthan are struggling to string together victories, winning just two so far. Rajasthan are facing the same problem that Deccan encountered last year - too many players out of form, which leaves the onus of victory on a handful. Yusuf Pathan has been the Man of the Match in both matches that Rajasthan have won, and the team's fortunes have invariably risen or fallen with him. Deccan, on the other hand, have had several players who have come to the party: apart from their openers Herschelle Gibbs and Adam Gilchrist, Dwayne Smith and Rohit Sharma have played handy knocks, while RP Singh and Pragyan Ojha are among the top wicket-takers in the tournament. Ojha hasn't had a bad game yet in IPL 2009, which is amazing for someone of his inexperience. This might also be Fidel Edwards' last game of the tournament, and he'll want a better end to IPL 2009 than the previous game, when he lost control over both his direction and his temper.