Rajasthan Royals need victory to hunt semi-final spot

The IPL 2010 is still wide open for six teams as three semi-final spots are vacant. The stage is all set for a battle between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals at the Swai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Both teams are led by greatest spinners, Anil Kumble and Shane Warne. Both the teams would like to win the match to remain in hunt for a spot in the semi-finals.

Both the teams have 12 points from 12 matches. The RCB ranks higher in the points table on basis of their better net run rate. The Rajasthan Royals would like to retaliate to the embarrassing defeat which they suffered at the hands of RCB in their first encounter to move a step closer to semi-finals.

A loss for either of the two teams would actually mean the end of the road to semi-finals of IPL 2010. Rajasthan Royals need to win today's game at all costs. The RCB will still have a slight chance of making it to the final four due to their better net run rate.

Both the sides have not performed consistently in the entire tournament. The Rajasthan Royals' campaign got off to a devastating start and they lost their first 3 matches. But they made a good return by winning 6 of the next 9 matches. On the other hand, the RCB did well in the first round of IPL 2010 by winning 4 of their first 6 matches. But in the second round, they could only win 2 out of their next 6 matches.

Royal Challengers Bangalore is one of the most balanced teams in the IPL 2010 as their batting has big hitters like Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa as well as experienced batsmen like Rahul Dravid. The same goes for their bowling which has a good mix of seam and spin bowlers.