This season, things could have been better for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils. Though the RCB has played one more game, the teams have just two wins to show ahead of their battle at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Tuesday.
RCB, parading one of the strongest batting line-ups in the Indian Premier League, is yet to play to its potential.
It started with an impressive win over Kochi Tuskers Kerala, lost three matches on the trot, managed a point from the rain-forced washout against Rajasthan Royals before riding on Chris Gayle's century to get past Kolkata Knight Riders.
Likewise, Daredevils, too, won its last outing after losing thrice in the previous four games.
Going by the league-performances in the last three seasons, a team needs a minimum of seven victories from 14 matches to be in contention for a place in the semifinals.
Last year, RCB and Daredevils tied at 14 points but the Bangalore team, based on superior net run-rate, was placed fourth, one above Delhi, after four teams finished with seven wins each.
If the past is any pointer to the future, at present, both the teams can afford to drop only a couple of games but win more.
RCB's quality comes from the presence of skipper Daniel Vettori, Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers — all ex-Daredevils — apart from Delhi-based Virat Kohli and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan. They are all capable of turning the match on their own.
With Gayle marking his arrival with a bang, the RCB assumes the look of a team difficult to deal with. In fact, after Tuesday's match, RCB will be keen to make a statement through three successive home games — against Pune, Punjab and Kochi — and improve its prospects of making the semifinals.
Big responsibility
However, Zaheer is yet to play to his reputation.
With the medium-pace attack mostly in the hands of home-grown talent, the responsibility on the left-armer rests that much more.
Should Daredevils once again opt to play on the ‘green' pitch that ended up helping the batsmen more than the bowlers against Kings XI Punjab on Saturday, Zaheer will be tested upfront by the destructive openers Virender Sehwag and David Warner. Right at the start of an innings, this is bound to be a fascinating contest, within the contest.
RCB holds the edge since its strong batting faces a none-too-intimidating Daredevils attack, where only Morne Morkel appears like a wicket-taking bowler.
Other pace bowlers like Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, young Varun Aaron and Aussie James Hopes have all looked innocuous in varying degrees.
The Daredevils attack will have to be at its best to restrict a ready-to-explode RCB. Since the core of RCB is formed by ex-Daredevils stars, Sehwag will surely have a plan or two for them. On the other hand, Vettori will surely expect Gayle, Dilshan, de Villiers, Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Saurabh Tiwary to make the most of the opportunity to come good on a belter of a pitch.
Daredevils' hopes of winning rests on its batting that has, so far, come good only twice to result in victories. Each time, Sehwag and Warner cannot be expected to fire.
Venugopala Rao, Naman Ojha, Aaron Finch and Yogesh Nagar hold the ability to score briskly but not as brutally as the openers.
Given the placid nature of the Kotla pitch, Vettori will have to strengthen his pace attack. Since the spin options are available in part-timers like Dilshan, Gayle and Kohli, Vettori may be tempted to bring in A. Mithun or Asad Pathan for left-arm spinner J. Syed Mohammad, who bowled well in the last game.
Armed with better resources, RCB should start as the favourite. But this season, quite consistently, strange things have happened.
