Less than 48 hours after rains affected an Indian Premier League game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, the venue was bathed in bright sunshine when Royal Challengers Bangalore trained on the eve of Saturday’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders.
But there was no running away from the weather’s after-effects as in the rest of the city, civic authorities grappled with the woes inflicted by thundershowers over the past few days.
Uprooted trees and puddles affected some roads while workers toiled to clear the urban pathways.
Stumped by wet skies after having scored 200 for seven against Rajasthan Royals here on Wednesday, RCB is in no mood to accept the vagaries of nature but there is forecast for rain during the weekend and the host is hoping that the clouds would sidestep the 4 p.m. match.
With the league at its midpoint, neither RCB nor KKR will want another washout.
The last time the teams clashed, RCB defeated KKR by three wickets at Eden Gardens, with Chris Gayle (96) playing a stellar role.
Morale-boosting winAfter that early April fixture, the rivals went their different ways, and now ahead of their second face-off, KKR steps in with a morale-boosting victory over Chennai Super Kings while RCB is itching to shed its wretched luck at home — three losses and a rain-forced abandonment.
RCB will draw some cheer from Sarfaraz Khan’s spit-fire knock against Royals.
The 17-year-old’s effort and Dinesh Karthik’s cameo backed A.B. de Villiers’s57.
It also showed that the team has some hope beyond Gayle, skipper Virat Kohli and de Villiers, though, the trio remain the squad’s big guns.
Mitchell Starc will helm an attack that has slowly shaken off the cobwebs of an indifferent start. KKR will relish Robin Uthappa’s return to runs against CSK.
Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir and Andre Russell need to flourish while runs are needed from Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan, who are yet to click.
In terms of positive cues, Uthappa and Pandey need not ask for a better centre as they return to their home-base from where Karnataka launched its stunning run in domestic cricket.
Hamstrung by the indictment of Sunil Narine’s action, KKR has lost the mystery element in its bowling but Brad Hogg has dished out his bag of tricks.
The way he and Umesh Yadav cope with the RCB heavy-weights will influence the game’s climax.
Hopefully the sun will be out in all its summer grandeur and heat.
