Organisers reschedule IPL 5 due to Delhi Municipal Elections

New Delhi: The Indian Premier League (IPL) organisers have tweaked the schedule of the fifth edition of the Twenty20 tournament because of the upcoming Municipal Elections in the Capital in mid April.

"The match schedule of the DLF IPL 2012 has undergone a change on account of the Delhi Municipal Elections in mid April 2012," the BCCI said in a statement. According to the new schedule, Delhi Daredevils will now lock horns with Deccan Chargers on April 19 instead of April 14 at the Ferozh Shah Kotla stadium here. Another match between the two teams scheduled on April 19 (4:00 pm) in Cuttack has been moved to May 10 in Hyderabad at the same time. Also, Deccan will no more play Pune Warriors on May 1 in Hyderabad. Rather, the two teams will face each other in Cuttack at 4:00 pm on the same day. Among other changes, the play-off match to be played on May 22 has been shifted from the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru to the MCA Stadium, Pune. The play-off match on May 23 will be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. If Royal Challengers Bangalore are placed first or second in the league table then the eliminator play-off match will be played on May 22 in Pune, and the Qualifier 1 play-off match will be played on May 23 in Bengaluru. If Royal Challengers Bangalore are placed third or below in the league table, then the Qualifier 1 play-off match will be played on May 22 in Pune and the eliminator play-off game will played on May 23 in Bengaluru. The Qualifier 1 play-off match will feature the teams that finished the regular season in first and second place, while the eliminator play-offs will feature the sides that finished the regular season in third and fourth place. As previously announced, the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai will host the Qualifier 2 play-off match and the final. "The start of the DLF IPL 2012 is exactly three weeks away. We are confident that the fifth season of this phenomenon will turn out to be the best-ever, on and off the field," said IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla. PTI