The Victorian Bushrangers will lock horns with the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first Super Eights match of the Champions League. Both teams won only match in the group stage but Victoria are at an advantage, having carried forward 2 points since they beat Delhi. The pitch at Bangalore has been batsman-friendly so far, with teams scoring in excess of 180 regularly. Expect nothing different today as well.
The teams:
Bangalore: Bangalore will know that they will have to win their next 3 games to assure themselves of a spot in the semi-finals. They will be extremely pleased with the way their batsmen have performed. Uthappa, Kallis, Kohli and Taylor have all displayed great form so far. Victoria have a strong bowling attack and it is imperative that the Bangalore batsmen maintain their form. Kallis’ rib injury remains a worry and if he is unable to bowl today, Bangalore would like to beef up their bowling. Their fielding wasn’t up to the mark in the first match and that’s one area where they can’t afford to slip up in a crucial match.
Victoria: Victoria have an extremely impressive T20 record at home but have flattered to deceive so far, winning clinically against Delhi while losing to the less-fancied Wayamba. Their strength has been their bowling, with Shane ‘Stickers’ Harwood and Clint McKay restricting the opposition with accurate bowling. Victoria have some big hitters in their side in Rob Quiney and Cameron white but neither of them has fired consistently. Their batters would have found the slow and low Delhi pitch difficult but will certainly enjoy the track at the Chinnaswamy.
Trivia:
6.80 – Shane Harwood’s bowling average- the third best in this tournament.
242.85 – Ross Taylor’s strike rate – the highest in the tournament (Min qualification – 25 runs)
Teams:
Bangalore Royal Challengers (From): Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis, Virat Kohli, Ross Taylor, Rahul Dravid, Balachandra Akhil, Mark Boucher(w), Roelof van der Merwe, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Anil Kumble(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rajesh Bishnoi, Manish Pandey, Dale Steyn, Jesse Ryder
Victoria (From): Rob Quiney, Bradley Hodge, Aiden Blizzard, Cameron White(c), David Hussey, Andrew McDonald, Matthew Wade(w), Clint McKay, Shane Harwood, Jon Holland, Peter Siddle, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Bryce McGain, Damien Wright, James Pattinson
Tags: Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Victoria, Champions League T20
