Newsfile: April 21

Tendulkar fit: Following a finger injury that kept him out of four IPL games out of Mumbai Indians' five this season, Sachin Tendulkar is set to return. He was forced to sit out after after being struck on the glove by Doug Bollinger in the opening game between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. He had tweeted on Saturday afternoon that he “had couple of net sessions and [was] feeling good”, and later Mumbai Indians' coach Robin Singh confirmed he will play against Kings XI Punjab on Sunday. "He's fine to play and is playing tomorrow," Robin said. With most teams bunched together on the points table and Mumbai Indians seemingly having a few problems at the top of the order, the franchise will be relieved at this news.

Had couple of net sessions and feeling good. Tomorrow is an important game for us in Mumbai.

— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) April 21, 2012

'Royals' best team in five years' - Trivedi: Rajasthan Royals have been the form team of IPL 2012 so far, sitting at the top-end of a tight points table with four wins from six games. Despite their relative lack of stars, much like in the inaugural season of the IPL, they’ve more than competed. That 2008 team went on to win the tournament, but this team is their best yet, according to seamer Siddharth Trivedi. “We have a balanced team, a good mix of players. A lot of them [people] consider us underdogs … But in my opinion, this is our best team in five years,” he said. “We have a lot of youngsters and domestic players who have the hunger to perform; they are aware that they could get noticed by the national selectors.”

Spin or pace? Delhi Daredevils' Shahbaz Nadeem might have confounded the likes of JP Duminy and Richard Levi with his left-arm spin, but if he had had his way, he might have been a fast bowler. In an interview with Cricketcountry.com, he said he had taken up spin bowling only at the insistence of his coach Imtiaz Hussain. “I wanted to be a fast bowler because Wasim Akram was my idol, but my coach Imtiaz Hussain asked me to bowl spin instead as I didn’t have the required height and the physique for fast bowling,” he said. “I was about 11 or 12 years old at the time. He told me we would see about bowling fast later, so I started to bowl spin.”