Bangalore face Daredevils in the clash of IPL sides

Bangalore:

Royal Challengers Bangalore will have to play out of their skins for a win while Delhi Daredevils would look to shrug off their inconsistent form when the two Indian sides lock horn in a potential high-voltage League B match of the Champions League Twenty20 here on Saturday.

In a match which would see several cricketing stars in action, the Royal Challengers, who were thumped by Victorian Bushrangers in the League B opener on Thursday, just cannot afford to lose on Saturday as that would confirm their ouster.

The Bangalore squad looked well-balanced on paper with world-class batsmen and bowlers in their ranks but they have not been able to put their act together in the tournament so far, having won just one game out of four.

Any side which has Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey and Mark Boucher would be a formidable batting unit but they have not fired in unison in the two out of four matches.

In the bowling front also, Bangalore boasts of Anil Kumble, Kallis, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe and Praveen Kumar but here again, except for Kallis, none has been consistent.

Bangalore need an inspired performance from Kumble tomorrow against the likes of his former India teammates Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

Incidentally, Delhi Daredevils has a similar concern with its batting.

Their key player Tillakaratne Dilshan is struggling and more importantly, the burden of captaincy seems to have bogged down Gautam Gambhir.

Only Sehwag seems to be enjoying his game, while consistency eludes Dinesh Karthik.

One department which could tilt the balance in favour of the Daredevils could be their bowling with Australian Dirk Nannes carrying over his red-hot form of the Indian Premier League II. He has taken four wickets out of the two group matches.

The Daredevils had also been strengthened by the good showing of retired Australian great Glenn McGrath in their last match against Wayamba of Sri Lanka.

The born-again Ashish Nehra is yet to make his mark in the tournament while Amit Mishra has been average so far.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Anil Kumble (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Balachandra Akhil, Rajesh Bishnoi, Mark Boucher, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Manish Pandey, Ross Taylor, Robin Uthappa, Roelof van der Merwe and Vinay Kumar.

Delhi Daredevils: Gautam Gambhir (c), Virender Sehwag, Rajat Bhatia, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dinesh Karthik, Mithun Manhas, Amit Mishra, Yogesh Nagar, Dirk Nannes, Ashish Nehra, Aavishkar Salvi, Pradeep Sangwan, Owais Shah, Manoj Tiwary.