Match Preview

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Challengers favourites against injury ridden Royals

Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to capitalize on the absence of some star players in the Rajasthan Royals squad when the two sides meet on Thursday.

Royal Challengers started their home campaign with an impressive win over Kings XI Punjab on Tuesday. They managed to chase a down a target in excess of 200, thanks to their impressive Batting Momentum and will be hoping to repeat the same against a struggling Royals unit. Jacques Kallis has been excellent so far and Robin Uthappa showed exactly what he is capable off in the game against Punjab. With the likes of Rahul Dravid, Manish Pandey and Eoin Morgan in their ranks, they have a very strong batting line-up. The only area of concern has been their bowling, which has been punished in both the matches played so far and most of the damage has been done in the Quick start overs.

Rajasthan Royals on the other hand are struggling with form and the growing list of problems has only increased with injuries ruling out Graeme Smith and Dimitri Mascarenhas for the remainder of the tournament. That takes out two very capable big-hitting batsmen from their arsenal. Their dependency on Yusuf Pathan and the other local talent would increase considerably and players like Damien Martyn could get a game, much ahead of expectation. As the comparison above clearly indicates, they will be underdogs for this one as Bangalore dominates them in almost every department but with Shane Warne leading their side, a turn around in fortunes might not be far.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Mumbai Indians face Daredevils test

Delhi Daredevils will play host to Mumbai Indians as the two sides look to build on their early success. Both teams are unbeaten in IPL 2010 so far.

The hosts are going into this game on the back of wins in their opening two fixtures. They have an impressive record against Mumbai with three wins and one loss in the four times that these teams have faced each other in previous editions. Delhi’s success has been dependent on the two innings from Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag in each of the two games respectively. They would be slightly concerned with the remainder of the top order not firing. AB de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan will be expected to get amongst the runs as soon as possible. Delhi are in a much stronger position than Mumbai as the Casrtol Index comparison above clearly shows. The only area of concern is Mumbai’s high Batting Momentum, though the have the bowlers to counter that.

Mumbai Indians on the other hand would be confident of their chances after having tasted success against The Royals in the opening match. They have done extremely well with the bat in that first game and would hope that their bowlers can put in a similar performance in the Quick Start and Extreme Performance overs. They would have to be cautious of the Daredevils’ opening combination with the ball. Dirk Nannes and Farveez Maharoof have done well to keep a lid on the opposition batsmen, early in the game. The two teams generate high rivalry with Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag going head to head.