IPL teams and their EPL equivalents – Part II

In the first part of the series, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore were discussed about. But here are 2 other popular   teams who have played over the 6 years in the IPL and what is it that makes them uncanningly similar to top ranked teams in the EPL.
1) RR = Liverpool

Rajasthan Royals should be renamed as the Rajasthan Romantics. They are the Teflons of cricket, no matter how their performances are, people admire this team perhaps even more than Chennai and Kolkata for example. Just as Liverpool is considered to be the first ever ‘champion’ of English football, the same also applies for Rajasthan who won the inaugural edition of the IPL heroically. This, despite being perceived as the outright underdogs due to their team having no big names as such then.

Liverpool has always nurtured talent and developed the best players, rather than acquired team. And also play more as a team than a bunch of individuals. Such is the philosophy of the Rajasthan Royals as well. Both the teams’ captains have been exceptional leaders, from Steven Gerrard to Shane Warne.

Though both of them have not been able to keep up with the increasing competition in the last few years, they both now seem to be on the up as Liverpool has revived their team to a huge extent this season while Rajasthan qualified for the Champions League T20 2013 by finishing 3rd.

Liverpool have a fierce rivalry with Manchester United, while Rajasthan too cannot tolerate a bad result against Chennai as they produce thrilling contests.

2) KKR = Manchester City

Both are the teams are generally the kings of controversies in their respective leagues. Their focus seems to be more on gaining publicity and money rather than performing well on the field. Kolkata Knight Riders have the Bollywood megastar, SRK as their team owner while City has the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi owning the team. So naturally, the players seem to be more pampered rather than disciplined.

Manchester City was literally a minnow team for most of the Premier League, until their administrators and the team went through tremendous changes Kolkata also was pretty much the same for the first 3 years, until SRK decided to dump Sourav Ganguly and bring in a new administrative team to control the franchise efficiently, on his behalf.

They both won their first ever championship coincidentally in the year 2012 as City defeated their neighbours and the No.1 Man Utd while Kolkata defeated the No.1 Chennai in the final. However, they both are on the verge of declining again as Kolkata were miserable this year while City also seem to be struggling currently with their form.