The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will take on the Delhi Daredevils (DD) for the first time in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2013. They will play at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Tuesday.
Overview:
RCB are at the top half of the table with six points after winning three of the five matches played so far. The lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in a super over, and then to Chennai Super Kings in a bizarre manner after RP Singh's no-ball of his last delivery took away the game from them, will haunt them. They are no doubt one of the toughest teams to beat in the IPL sixth edition.
DD are at the bottom of the table after losing all the four games played so far. The absence of Kevin Pietersen and Jesse Ryder has given a big blow to the team but they should get back on their feet and perform on Tuesday in order to stay in the competition.
Previous Meetings:
The teams have met nine times in the past, and DD have 5-4 win-lost record against the RCB. DD won two of the three matches played in Bangalore.
Team News:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: The team must be high on confidence, as the big hitters - Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and Ab De Villiers - are in form. At least one of them perform on their day, and that's enough to put up a fight against the opponents. Opener Mayank Agarwal has done fairly well too.
In the bowling department, they have bowlers like Vinay Kumar, RP Singh, Jaydev Unadkat, and Murali Kartik at their disposal. Muttiah Muralidaran, who missed the previous match, may return to the team and Ravi Rampaul took three wickets for 31 in the match against CSK.
Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag has returned to the team but that didn't make much difference as they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by three wickets. Skipper Mahela Jayawardena played well in the first game but failed there after. None of the batsmen have shown spark except David Warner, which is a cause cause of worry. They will be keen to register a win and put up some points on the table.
Ashish Nehra, Umesh Yadav, Morne Morkel, Johan Botha, Siddarth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem and Irfan Pathan are in the bowling line-up but their performances are far from impressive this season. They need to pull up their socks and restrict their opponent to a small total.
Prediction:
DD are a strong team despite their poor performance this edition. However, RCB are lions at home, having won all the matches played at home this season. They are favourites to win on Tuesday.
SQUADS:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (captain), AB De Villiers, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Andrew McDonald, Arun Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Chris Gayle, Christopher Barnwell, Daniel Christian, Daniel Vettori, Harshal Patel, Jaidev Unadkat, K P Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Moises Henriques, Murali Kartik, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pankaj Singh, Prasanth Parameswaran, R Vinay Kumar, Ravi Rampaul, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Aravind, Sandeep Warrier, Saurabh Tiwary, Sheldon Jackson, Sunny Sohal, Syed Mohammad, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Vijay Zol, Zaheer Khan
Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (c), Ajit Agarkar, Andre Russell, Arisht Singhvi, Ashish Nehra, CM Gautam, David Warner, Gulam Bodi, Irfan Pathan, Jeevan Mendis, Johan Botha, Kedar Jadhav, Manpreet Juneja, Morne Morkel, Naman Ojha, Pawan Negi, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Royston Dias, Siddarth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Venugopal Rao, Virender Sehwag, Yogesh Nagar
Where to Watch Live
The match will begin at 8:00 pm IST and will be telecast live on Sony Set Max channel.
