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Cape Town: The first evening at IPL Season Two will also be about friends turned foes. The camaraderie that Hampshire mates Shane Warne and Kevin Pietersen share goes back a long way, but nothing can quite suppress the fierce competitor that resides in each of them.
The duel between defending champions Team Jaipur and Royal Challengers may well come to be decided by a fierce face-off between the two pals.
The Royals were considered underdogs and after their drubbing in the opening game against Delhi, not many would have given them a chance
While Warne's Jaipur have a reputation to defend, KP, taking over the reins from Rahul Dravid and available only for the first couple of weeks, will want to make an impression right away.
Shane Watson, who was the player of the tournament in IPL 2008, was the first to win three Man of the Match awards.
Swapnil Asnodkar, who was nicknamed Goa Dynamo by his Rajasthan Royals teammates was the only player from Goa to feature in the IPL 2008
Royal Challengers, the ultimate under-achievers of the inaugural edition, may well come up with something special this time around.
Team Jaipur, in contrast, showed last season how to maximize potential but Warnes young brigade will be playing in conditions which are pretty much alien to it.
In a warm-up match here last weekend, the team has already found out how life on the on the Newlands pitch can be.
It will also be interesting to find out how the youngsters carry their new status. This time, they start as front-runners and will have to survive the push from others trying to overtake them.
Match fact:
Saturday Apri 18, 2009
Start 16:30pm local (14:30 GMT) and 08:00 pm India