Rajasthan Royals have been showered with affection over the last month as they’ve zealously conjured up a halo of invincibility around the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. But all roads in Jaipur will not lead to the ground tomorrow. A sell-out crowd is not expected for the match against Bangalore Royal Challengers, with apprehensions still thick in the air after the city lost over 100 lives to the blasts earlier this week.

Top-of-the-table Rajasthan will face the least-performing of the IPL teams without getting a chance to sweat it out on the field in the run-up to the game. They avoided practice on Friday and their foreign recruits — holidaying in Goa — deferred their arrival in the city till late this evening. Team manager Darren Berry had even been quoted by an Australian newspaper saying that some players harboured serious apprehensions about playing on.

But whether it was a reminder of the money involved or assurances of un-breachable security, they’ve been talked out of jumping the ship by IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.

Team psychologist, Jeremy Snape, who flew back from his testimonial game at Lord’s and addressed the media straight after a four-hour drive from Delhi, stressed that a possible place in the semi-final was incentive enough for cricketers to tune their minds into the game on the morrow.

Getting back to work

“As soon as they’re comfortable with the security, the players will be ready to switch their minds off other things. Just regroup, and play our best cricket since we’re in a good position,” he said. “We’ve realised from intelligence inputs that it is a localised issue and we don’t see any problems after the franchise have promised us protection,” Snape added, speaking on behalf of the foreign players.

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