Over the past few days in which Lewis Hamilton revved up his hot wheels in Bangalore, the Champions League too cranked up excitement here at the Chinnaswamy Stadium thanks to two matches that twisted and turned towards last-ball finishes. Warriors and Mumbai Indians scraped through, while Royal Challengers Bangalore and Trinidad and Tobago clutched dismay.
Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders would rather prefer a game easy on the nerves as the two teams gear up for a Thursday night Group B face-off.
RCB lost its opening fixture to Warriors and KKR failed to get past Somerset and South Australia at Hyderabad and the rivals badly need a victory to revive their campaigns.
Against Warriors, RCB relished a string of cameos from its batsmen with the exception of Mayank Agarwal but the short-stints at the crease from men as varied as Chris Gayle and Mohammad Kaif meant that momentum was a stop-start affair though skipper Daniel Vettori said: “170 odd was good and our top-order was the usual standard.”
Perhaps opting to surprise Warriors, Vettori employed Gayle as the opening bowler, but the former West Indies skipper went for 43 off his four overs. Dirk Nannes and Vettori marginally stemmed the run-flow and S. Arvind's tight last over stretched the match before Wayne Parnell snatched the game away. Abhimanyu Mithun was expensive and at the same time scalped two wickets in the penultimate over and Vettori surely does not want ‘half-a-good' overs.
RCB's worry
Ahead of its game against KKR, RCB's worry would also centre on its fielding which Vettori described as lop-sided.
KKR, meanwhile, has plunged downhill ever since its victory over Auckland in a qualifying game at Hyderabad. Subsequently KKR lost to Somerset in the qualifier, again succumbed to the English county in the league match and on Tuesday, watched Redbacks whip up a 19-run victory.
Jacques Kallis helmed the batting with 128 runs, while the rest are yet to click, though Yusuf Pathan and Manoj Tiwary have had their flickers.
Skipper Gautam Gambhir, slowly emerging from the after-effects of a head-injury he suffered in England, is yet to stamp his authority as a mere nine runs from two matches indicate, but his proven big-match skills can come in handy against RCB.
With England scheduled to play five One-Day Internationals in India from October 14, Gambhir's recovery and runs will evoke a fair share of interest. The KKR bowling is yet to click with Brett Lee and company failing to choke the runs.
The all-round skills that Kallis and Shakib Al Hasan bring to the table, also needs to be showcased if the visitors hope to revert to the winning path.
Both teams may have changed drastically from their initial line-ups but in Kallis, Gambhir has an old RCB hand, to gain some additional inputs.
de Villiers out
RCB suffered a blow when A.B. de Villiers was ruled out with a fractured finger.
de Villiers's versatility, as evident in his batting and wicketkeeping, will be sorely missed.
