Mumbai Indians To Take On Rajasthan Royals In Opening Clash Of CLT20 2013

Mumbai Indians, the Pepsi IPL 2013 winners, will play Rajasthan Royals, who finished third in the same competition, in the inaugural Group Stage match of the CLT20 2013, on Saturday, 21 September 2013. The game will be played at Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh Stadium, the home venue of the Rajasthan Royals.

The CLT20 2013 final will be played on Sunday, 6 October 2013, at the Ferozeshah Kotla Ground, Delhi, which hosted Qualifier 1 and the Eliminator in the Pepsi IPL 2013. The Kotla will also host the second semi-final of the tournament, on Saturday, 5 October 2013. The first semi-final will be played at Jaipur on Friday, 4 October 2013.

The opening Group Stage encounter will be followed by a double-header at Ranchi’s JSCA International Stadium Complex, on Sunday, 22 September 2013.

Brisbane Heat, the winner of Australia’s KFC T20 Big Bash League, will play Trinidad and Tobago, the domestic T20 Champion in the West Indies, in the first game, to begin at 4:00 pm IST. It will be followed by a duel between Chennai Super Kings, the Pepsi IPL 2013 runners-up, and the Titans, South Africa’s domestic T20 runners-up, at 8:00 pm IST.

The complete match-schedule of the tournament is available on http://www.clt20.com/schedule.

Delhi, Jaipur and Ranchi apart, the CLT20 2013 matches will be played at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad, and the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad.

The Qualifier Stage of the tournament will be played from Tuesday, 17 September 2013 to Friday, 20 September 2013, at Hyderabad, which was one of the venues in the 2009 and 2011 editions of the competition. The only other CLT20 2013 venue to have hosted the tournament in the past is Delhi’s Ferozeshah Kotla Ground, where eight matches were played in 2009.

The CLT20 2013 will follow a format similar to the two previous editions, with a Group Stage preceded by a Qualifier. A total of 29 matches will be played in the tournament by the best domestic T20 teams from around the world, for total prize money of US$6million.

The CLT20 2013 Qualifier will feature four teams: Q1 – Otago Volts (New Zealand’s HRV Cup champions), Q2 – Sunrisers Hyderabad (Fourth-ranked team in the Pepsi IPL 2013), Q3 – The winner of Sri Lanka’s domestic T20 competition, and Q4 – Faisalabad Wolves (Pakistan’s domestic T20 Champions).

The teams will play each other once, with the top two advancing to the Group Stage. Q1 / Q3 will enter Group A, if either of them makes it to the Group Stage. Q2 / Q4 will enter Group B, if either of them makes it. If Q1 and Q3 both make it to the Group Stage, then Q1 will enter Group A, and Q3 will enter Group B. If Q2 and Q4 both make it to the Group Stage, then Q2 will enter Group B, and Q4 will enter Group A.

The Group Stage will feature ten teams. Group A will comprise Mumbai Indians (winner of Pepsi IPL 2013), Rajasthan Royals (third-ranked team in the Pepsi IPL 2013), Highveld Lions (winner of South Africa’s domestic T20 competition), Perth Scorchers (KFC T20 Big Bash League runner-up), and a team from the Qualifier.

Group B will comprise Brisbane Heat (KFC T20 Big Bash League champion), Trinidad & Tobago (West Indies T20 champion), Chennai Super Kings (runner-up in the Pepsi IPL 2013), Titans (South Africa’s domestic T20 runners-up), and a team from the Qualifier.

The top team from Group A will play the second-ranked team from Group B in the first semi-final, at Jaipur on 4 October 2013. The top team from Group B will play the second-ranked team from Group A in the second semi-final, at Delhi on 5 October 2013. The winners of the semis will play in the CLT20 2013 Final on 6 October 2013.

Group Stage
Group A
Mumbai Indians (India)
Highveld Lions (South Africa)
Perth Scorchers (Australia)
Rajasthan Royals (India)
A team from the Qualifier

Group B
Chennai Super Kings (India)
Titans (South Africa)
Brisbane Heat (Australia)
Trinidad & Tobago (West Indies)
A team from the Qualifier

Qualifier
Q1 – Otago Volts (New Zealand)
Q2 – Sunrisers Hyderabad (India)
Q3 – SLC1 (Sri Lanka)
Q4 – Faisalabad Wolves (Pakistan)

About Champions League Twenty20
CLT20 is a sub-committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The tournament will be broadcast around the world by Star Sports, who are also the commercial rights holders for the event.

Previous Champions
2009 – NSW Blues (Australia)
2010 – Chennai Super Kings (India)
2011 – Mumbai Indians (India)
2012 – Sydney Sixers (Australia)