Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians at Bangalore
This match was initially scheduled to be played on the 10th of May but due to polling in Karnataka, it had to be rescheduled. Now, both teams are out of contention for the semi finals but a match between the teams owned by the power man Mukesh Ambani and the liquor baron Vijay Mallya can not be short of fireworks.
Men at the Helm
Rahul aka Jammy has shown some superb resolve throughout the tournament and has shown what he is capable of at the few instances when his team mates have contributed a little. Sachin on the other hand has seemed short of strategy and innovativeness or may be he has prepared a lot of strategy and predetermined the moves and has thus been predictable.
We have the bat
Mumbai are a much stronger batting side than Bangalore but even Bangalore have shown some encouraging signs and their batsmen definitely have the class to come up with the goods. Watch out for Dravid, Kallis, Misbah and White.
We have the ball
Mumbai have Pollock in very good form but departure of Bravo has hit them badly. Others have been patchy at best. They must look to play Nel in place of Fernando. Bangalore have been quite good and Dale Steyn’s pace and accuracy gives them a definite edge over the other teams.
Patrolling Party
Bangalore have had odd off days, otherwise they have fielded pretty well. Virat Kohli and Cameroon White have been exceptional. Mumbai on the other hand been ordinary, spilling some pretty important chances.
High on betting meter
Mumbai are slightly higher on the betting meter courtesy their greater all round strength.
Who gets the tick?
Mumbai depend heavily on Jayasuriya for a big score and Pollock for early wickets. If Bangalore can take care of these two they can bag in one more win.
It will be the Rajasthan Royals taking on the Delhi DareDevils and Kings XI Punjab against the Chennai SuperKings in the Indian Premier League 2008 Semi-Finals.
Two classic clashes which hold promise for enough drama, action and fireworks plus exciting cricket to entertain the millions of 20Twenty Cricket lovers worldwide.
All the four Semi-finals spots have now been decided with Deccan once again losing a game in front of their home crowd to Chennai Super Kings and their home jinx continued to haunt them this evening too. They didn’t put enough runs on the board and it was always going to be tough for their under par bowling department to pull off something special. Chennai didn’t get off to the best of starts but Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni stayed there for quite sometime and steered their side to a rather comfortable victory.
The slim chance which Mumbai Indians had disappeared today with Chennai’s win. Basically Mumbai colud not hold on to their nerves in the last three matches - otherwise there was enough promise for them to reach the semi finals. And also Virender Sehwag will definitely sleep well tonight after a week of wait and watch other teams slog it out to decide their fate in the semis.
PTI Reports from Chennai that M S Dhoni, who is nursing a finger injury, has been cleared to play but Parthiv Patel would do the keeping against Bangalore Royal Challengers on Wednesday.
Kepler Wessels coach of Chennai Super Kings said “Dhoni will play against the Bangalore team. He has been ruled fit but he will not keep the wickets.”
“Dhoni will definitely play but he may not keep. We are keeping options open and will assess his condition on Wednesday,” Wessels said.
Dhoni injured his finger during the last match against Kolkata Knight Riders. Though the Royal Challengers are considered a weaker team, Wessels said, “They are still a dangerous side and we will not take them lightly. They have nothing to lose, so that will make them more determined. Hence, we are not under-estimating them. We will assess the situation and announce the playing eleven.” Wessels also added that winning the remaining three games were important for them.
“We have three games left and they are all significant for us. We cannot be complacent,” he said.
Wessels does not believe that 20Twenty tournament is only for youngsters, he said - “It is all about fitness and agility and as long as you can perform, age does not come into the picture. Besides, the Challengers have some very good players,”
It’s just an interesting observation. There is fair chance that four teams behind Rajasthan Royals might all be stuck on 16 points after the end of the league round of the Indian premier league.
There is a pretty decent possibility of this happening. Just have a look at how the things could roll and lead to such a situation.
Delhi Daredevils have 12 points with 2 matches remaining. One is against Mumbai and the other against Kolkata. They have a pretty good chance of winning against Kolkata and if one of Sehwag and Gambhir plays a big innings and the bowlers bowl according to reputation they can beat Mumbai too. This will get them on 16 points at the end of the league.
Chennai have 14 points with 3 of their matches remaining against Bangalore, Rajasthan and Deccan. Rajasthan are a strong side and Deccan beat Chennai pretty convincingly in the last match between these two. If Chennai wins 1 of their remaining matches they would be on 16 points as well.
Mumbai are on 12 points with 4 matches remaining against Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan and Bangalore. As we said earlier, Delhi must defeat Mumbai and Rajasthan are well capable of doing that as well. Mumbai are too good a team to loose too many matches and thus they could win against Punjab and Bangalore, giving them 16 points too.
Now this is the toughest part. Punjab have 14 points with 4 games to play. They will play against Mumbai, Deccan, Kolkata and Rajasthan. As we said, Mumbai have to defeat them and Rajasthan can beat them too. Deccan is a very good team. Although too late, but they seem to be coming into rhythm and would definitely like to prove a point. So if Punjab manage to beat only one of the four teams they are to play they are to going to finish on 16 points.
Now it is very difficult to predict which teams will get through on the basis of net run rate. But taking into account the results of the matches that these teams played with those who they are to play, a prediction can be made.
Unless there is a huge victory for any of the teams Chennai are the most likely to go out because they have very poor net run rate and loosing 2 of their remaining 3 matches wouldn’t help either.
Still, the margins of victories will have a huge bearing on the outcome and Bangalore and Deccan could turn out King makers and dream breakers in the scenario.
A Preview: Delhi DareDevils were in a desperate situation before today’s match against the Bangalore Royal Challengers. They had had 10 points off eleven matches, and with only three matches to play for them, an all win record from now on would take them to sixteen. Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, had 12 off ten, thus would need only two wins off their four matches to equal Delhi even if they win all! This only meant one thing, it was a must win situation for the DareDevils. At the other end of the spectrum, one had the Bangalore Royal Challengers sitting with four points for some time now, showing no urgency to move anywhere, but down the points table.
Spin of coin: Delhi DareDevils won the toss and elected to field first on a pitch that was supposed to play slower and lower as the game progressed. His reasoning would have been simple, it is easier to chase in a twenty over encounter when you have the target in sight, than actually setting one.
Compositions: There were about half a dozen changes made in all, to both the sides, which was a record of sorts. For the Delhi DareDevils, Amit Mishra was very surprisingly rested after a brilliant performance earlier and in came Yo Mahesh, where as Shoaib Malik made way for A.B. deVilliers. The Royal Challengers’ challenge had ended, and hence they decided to bring in some new players as well, Dale Steyn, Sreevats Goswami, B. Akhil and Bharat Chipli making it into the playing XI.
The Review: The biggest problem facing Bangalore Royal Challengers is their opening partnership, and hence it was no big surprise to see their eighth opening pair of the tournament walk out to face up the bowling, in the form of Jacques Kallis and Bharat Chipli. Chipli did not last long, but it was the second wicket partnership of Kallis and Under-19 ‘keeper and debutant, Sreevats Goswami that stabilized the innings. Kallis was dismissed by Farveez Maharoof and was soon followed by Dravid’s dismissal, but Sreevats duly completed his half century, making him the youngest in the tournament to do so. However, he soon departed in a bid to up the ante, and the Challengers lost wickets at regular interval to stutter to 130/7 in 19 overs. It was here that Misbah-ul-Haq bashed 24 runs off Rajat Bhatia to propel the Challengers’ score to 154/7 in the 20. McGrath was his miserly self with figures of 4-0-15-2, but Maharoof went one better, his four overs yielding only 13 runs for the two wickets.
Delhi’s reply was exactly as their team name suggests, ‘daredevilish’. It was Gautam Gambhir who continued his good form – to reach 500 runs in the tournament – but Sehwag quickly joined in the party and left his partner way behind. The powerplay – of six overs – went for 71 without a loss of any wickets, where as the next over went for 19, before Sehwag cut one straight to the point’s throat. Delhi was 90/1 at this stage in only 7 overs! It was only the wicket of Gambhir and the subsequent introduction of the spinners that stemmed the flow of scoring to such an extent, that the batsmen begun to feel the pressure and soon succumbed to it. Dilshan was stumped off Kumble, where as de Villiers edged one off Steyn. When Dinesh Karthik fell at the score of 132, the DareDevils still required 22 runs of 27 balls. They did stutter a bit, but in the end, reached their target with five wickets and 10 deliveries to spare.
The MoM: For a change, we had a played from the losing side win the Man-of-the-Match award, Sreevats Goswami winning it for his well crafted 50 along with three dismissals – a catch, stumping and a run-out!
