The Hindu : Sport : Can Dravid’s men gladden home fans?

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Can Dravid’s men gladden home fans?

K.C. Vijaya Kumar

Royal Challengers takes on Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians

— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

MAKING THEM HAPPY: With rain preventing players from practising, Misbah-ul-Haq of Royal Challengers signs autographs for fans in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Bangalore: The DLF-Indian Premier League caravan rolls in for one final flourish to the venue where it all started on April 18 before moving towards Mumbai for the climax.

Wednesday afternoon’s match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium pits two teams that are itching for victory for entirely different reasons.

Lone win at home

Rahul Dravid’s Challengers — eight points from 13 matches — may have escaped the ‘wooden spoon’ after notching up two consecutive victories recently but a lone win from six matches at home still rankles the team think-tank.

Wednesday’s clash is an opportunity for the home side to finish its lacklustre campaign with a victory and offer some cheer to the local fans.

The Challengers has ambushed Super Kings and defeated Deccan Chargers in its last two away-matches to live up to skipper Dravid’s hope of being ‘party-poopers’.

Batting coming good

And with key local players like Vinay Kumar and B. Akhil belatedly chipping in, Dravid’s men seem to be homing in on consistency, an ingredient that was missing in its earlier matches.

The twin victories ensured that the Challengers would finish seventh in an eight-team league.

The home team’s batting needs to express itself rather than force Dravid to repeat the “we-fell-short-by-15-runs” line at post-match press conferences.

The bowling, that threw in a surprise with Anil Kumble opening the attack against Hyderabad, has quality in its ranks but up against the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya and Tendulkar, it is also about keeping a cool head.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians, after a six-match winning spree, has slumped with three losses, the last one being a nerve-wracking final ball three-wicket defeat to Rajasthan Royals.

For a team with a rich vein of experience in Tendulkar, Pollock and Jayasuriya, the failure to hold its nerve as evident in Dilhara Fernando’s last over against the Royals, has dented its balance sheet in recent outings. An interesting sidelight will be about how the crowd will react to local lad Robin Uthappa, who will walk out to the turf clad in a Mumbai Indians’ jersey.

Uthappa, ever since his under-15 days as a podgy wicketkeeper batsman, has felt at home at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Wednesday will reveal whether the warm vibes still linger though the home side will hope that his batting exuberance remains mute.

Thundershowers

On Tuesday afternoon, thundershowers washed out Challengers’ practice session.

The members of the Mumbai Indians team, who landed by a chartered flight in the evening, opted to rest in their hotel rooms.

The teams (from):

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Rahul Dravid (Capt.), Mark Boucher, Cameron White, Bharat Chipli, Abdur Razzak, Shreevats Goswami, Wasim Jaffer, Sunil Joshi, Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Anil Kumble, Misbah-ul-Haq, Devraj Patil, Dale Steyn, B. Akhil, K.P. Appanna, J. Arun Kumar and Vinay Kumar.

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (Capt.), Sanath Jayasuriya, Dominic Thornely, Robin Uthappa, Abhishek Nayar, Shaun Pollock, Dilhara Fernando, Yogesh Takawale, Dhaval Kulkarni, Rohan Raje, Ashish Nehra, Andre Nel, Dwayne Smith, Rajesh Pawar and Saurabh Tiwary.

Match starts at 4 p.m.

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