Daijiworld Media Network

New Delhi, May 10: Hello, and a warm welcome to Match 57 of the Indian T20 League. This is a big game for Bangalore. They have struggled to achieve the same amount of success on the road when compared to their form at home. With Rajasthan and Hyderabad looking very good, this game will determine Bangalore's destiny. On the other hand, Delhi have nothing to lose and will look to spoil Bangalore's chances as well. The last time these two sides played, the game went into a super-over and ended with a win for Bangalore. Let's hope we get another close game tonight. Been a while since we had a thriller as well.

Delhi have won the toss and elected to field

Kohli: 'Love playing in my home-ground, coming back to the place where I grew up playing cricket. We've won 7 out of 9 games initially and then lost a few, that can happen in this tournament. The next week is important for us, but we're going to concentrate on one game at a time. I would have bowled first also. Unadkat replaced RP Singh. Syed Mohammad replaces Arun Karthik.'

Warner: 'We have 4 games to go and hopefully we can win all those games. We're obviously missing KP in the middle order. We need Viru to fire as well, we know what can happen when he fires so hopefully he does. Honour and privilege to lead Delhi, hopefully I can lead by example. We like to chase. The wicket is a bit slow but there will be some dew as well. Agarkar, Negi and Gautam are out. Irfan Pathan, Nadeem and Unmukt Chand are in.'

David Warner is leading Delhi today.

Teams:

Bangalore (Playing XI): Chris Gayle, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers(w), Saurabh Tiwary, Moises Henriques, Ravi Rampaul, Vinay Kumar, Syed Mohammad Jamaluddin, Jaidev Unadkat, Murali Kartik

Delhi (Playing XI): David Warner(c), Virender Sehwag, Mahela Jayawardene, Ben Rohrer, Unmukt Chand, Kedar Jadhav(w), Irfan Pathan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Morne Morkel, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav

Match Preview:

Already knocked out of the tournament's play-off stage, Delhi have just pride to play for but for Bangalore there is a lot at stake when these two teams face off at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

Delhi:

Team News: In a complete contrast to their last year's performance, Delhi have not looked even a pale shadow of themselves. With nine defeats from 12 matches, it has only gone from bad to worse for the home side. In the current scenario, however, they can play without any pressure. There is no burden of expectations on the misfiring batters and out-of-sorts bowlers. They now have nothing to lose and can just go on to play party-poppers.

In form player: Ben Rohrer came up with a fine half-century in Delhi's previous game against Rajasthan, helping his side recover from a precarious position to post a competitive total. Although it proved to be insufficient in the end, the left-hander showed a lot of promise with his knock and Delhi will be hoping he does the same against the star-studded Bangalore side.

Hit: Apart from David Warner, no other player has done anything big for the Delhi side in this edition. The Australian opener, with 360 runs from 12 matches including 4 half-centuries, is the only player from his team to cross the 300 barrier in this tournament.

Misses: Delhi's top order has disappointed for inexplicable reasons. Virender Sehwag and captain Mahela Jayawardene have failed to live up to their reputations while youngster Unmukt Chand too has not made much of an impact. In the bowling department, Morne Morkel and Ashish Nehra have disappointed as has Ajit Agarkar.

Previous results: Lost to Rajasthan by 9 wickets, Lost to Hyderabad by 6 wickets, Won against Kolkata by 7 wickets.

Bangalore:

Team News: Bangalore, who are still be recovering from a rude David Miller shock, cannot afford to take a step wrong as the fight for the play-offs has intensified. While Chennai have already made it through to the final four and Rajasthan are sitting pretty in the second spot, there is a close battle among Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. In their remaining four matches of the league stage, Bangalore first play the bottom placed teams - Delhi, Kolkata and Punjab - before facing the table-toppers and the Kohli led side will be hoping to strengthen their position before their final league game.

In form player: Chris Gayle's explosive form has continued and the West Indian is contesting a close battle with Michael Hussey for the Orange Cap. With 566 runs including 3 fifties and a big century, the hard-hitting Jamaican is just 9 runs away from regaining the Orange Cap and Gayle will be hoping to get a lot more than the 9 runs and extend the gap.

Hits: Batting has not been a worry for Bangalore as there have been good contributions coming from the rest of the batters apart from Gayle. Ab de Villiers has show-cased his brilliance in the last few matches while Cheteshwar Pujara, in his first game this season, scored a fine half-century.

Misses: Bowling has been Bangalore's main concern with the likes of RP Singh, Vinay Kumar going for a lot of runs while Murali Kartik and Moises Henriques haven't been too economical either. While Vinay and RP are the top two wicket takers for the Bangalore team this season, they have conceded runs at an alarming rate. Bangalore will have to rectify the flaws in the bowling department soon to ensure that they finish as one of the top four placed teams.

Previous results: Lost to Punjab by 6 wickets, Won against Pune by 17 runs, Lost to Rajasthan by 4 wickets.