NEW DELHI: The fact that DLF Indian Premier League connects strongly with the cricket fan - new and old, men and women, boys and girls, at workplace and at home - was underlined when www.iplt20.com, the official online destination of the tournament, clocked more than five million page view in one day during the double header in Centurion on Thursday.

More than 700,000 net users logged in to track Delhi Daredevils defeat Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings beat Rajasthan Royals for the first time in four IPL games. The official site has had more than 31 million page views from the time the tournament was launched in Cape Town on April 18 and more than 7.2 million visitors.

"We have made a sincere attempt to address the needs of the wide variety of DLF IPL fans - from videos to audios, from exciting exclusive interviews with players, coaches and team owners to getting Sachin Tendulkar's elder brother Ajit Tendulkar to write exclusively for the site, from a rich collection of photographs to insightful statistics," said NetlinkBlue Chief Executive Architect Akash Arora.

Another interesting aspect is DLF IPL Fan Voice http://cs.iplt20.com/ipl-fanvoice.shtml, the networking section where more than 325,000 fans have registered themselves to enjoy a variety of features - from writing blogs to sharing points of view in discussion boards; from making new friends to sharing videos and photographs they love.

This section is a reiteration of the fact that DLF Indian Premier League holds a huge appeal to the fans and promises to go well beyond May 24 when the second edition of the tournament in South Africa is expected to draw to a close with the Grand Final.

The passionate fans have been joined by DLF IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi who posts his blogs here. "I hope to use this platform to address concerns, talk of strategies and of our plans, goals, hopes, dreams and desires I have often thought it sad that I alone get access to all this information, insight, and even sheer fun - hence, I will use this blog as a medium through which I can share stories of these encounters and the insights and fun they bring," he writes.

PRETORIA: At the game between the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals played out at the Centurion in Pretoria last evening, the on-field umpires Mr. Rudi Koertzen and Mr. G. A. Baxter, observed that Rajasthan Royals left-arm fastmedium bowler Kamran Khan had a suspect illegal bowling action on certain deliveries.

On completion of the match, footage was obtained and examined by all the three umpires including Mr. Amish Saheba who was the TV Umpire for the match and it was their collective belief that further action was necessary under the MCC's Laws of Cricket section 24.3 that governs the game. The match referee for the game at the Centurion was G. R. Viswanath.

The matter has now been referred by the Indian Premier League to the team management of the Rajasthan Royals and the IPL's Technical Committee as per the MCC's Laws of Cricket that govern the game.

Indian Premier League Chairman & Commissioner Lalit Modi today stated "I have officially received a copy of the match umpires report duly signed by all the three umpires and the video footage for the game at the Centurion. The matter has now been referred to the team management of the Rajasthan Royals and the IPL's Technical Committee. I now await the report from the Technical Committee and will then decide on the future course of action."

DURBAN: The succession of close contests in the DLF Indian Premier League continued with Royal Challengers Bangalore edging out Kings XI Punjab by eight runs on a sluggish Kingsmead track here on Friday.

Chasing 146 for a win, Kings XI Punjab were kept on track by Yuvraj Singh who made a half-century but lost their way in the latter half of the game. The heart reached out to Yuvraj Singh, who had claimed a hat-trick in the Royal Challengers Bangalore innings. The man of the match award was a poor consolation for the Kings XI Punjab skipper.

Anil Kumble led Royal Challengers Bangalore with panache, bringing his calm to the fore and ensuring that his troops stayed that way too under pressure. He sent down a fabulous 19th over – when he conceded but four runs and castled Kumar Sangakkara – and picked Praveen Kumar to bowl the final over against one of Kings XI Punjab’s better striker, Irfan Pathan.

Praveen started with a dot ball in the corridor outside the off-stump, leaving Kings XI Punjab needing 13 runs off five balls. Pathan responded with a rasping square drive off the next delivery to bring the equation down to nine off four balls, drawing more people of the edge of their seats. Praveen conjured a slower one and Pathan missed it completely as he swung early.

Though he held a ball that was rendered quite wet by the dew, the Royal Challengers Bangalore swing bowler saw his chance, sensing that Pathan was perhaps too worked up. He bowled a low full toss – such a smart weapon under the circumstances – and Pathan scooped it with hope and not enough power to the man at long-on.

Praveen yorked Piyush Chawla with the next ball and Kings XI Punjab resigned themselves to the truth that they had botched it up. To be sure, Yuvraj Singh had done well to lead the chase by opening the innings – he knew that someone had to get going at the start and he was willing to be the man. But his own fall in the 10th over led to doubt clouds enveloping Kings XI Punjab run.

Earlier, only a valiant 35 by Roelof van der Merwe helped Royal Challenger Bangalore post a competitive score after being 80 for five in 12 overs. Van Der Merwe made 16 of the 21 runs that his team took off left-arm paceman Yusuf Abdulla in the 18th over. The local paceman picked up the Purple Cap.

Kings XI Punjab retained their fourth place on the league table but Royal Challengers Bangalore catapulted themselves to the fifth place on the back of two successive victories.