Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, May 11 : The last time these two sides met in this season Rajasthan romped home with Tambe weaving a web around the Bangalore batsmen. Hello and welcome to the second match of this Sunday's double-header.
On the other hand, Rajasthan have been fairly consistent in the tournament, having won 5 games to stay at the top half of the table. However, their batsmen blacked out against Hyderabad in the previous game, thus letting the momentum slip away.
With their batsmen faltering repeatedly Bangalore find themselves at sixth place with just three wins in eight attempts.Kohli himself has been struggling for form while there seems to be no bottom to the abyss Yuvraj is hurtling into. Gayle too is yet to tee off. AB has been the lone bright spark in the batting department. There are not much complaints about the bowling though. Bangalore will have to fire in unison if they are to comeback into contention.
Bangalore have won the toss and have opted to bat
Watson: 'We were looking to bowl first. That works well for us (he looks at Kohli and smiles). We have got one of the greats of Bengaluru (Dravid) with us. We still have to adjust to conditions all around the country. Things have been going along well for us. We have learnt from our mistakes. The crowd is close to the game here. The atmosphere is incredible. We have one change with Tewatia coming in for Kulkarni.'
Kohli: 'We are going to have a bat first. All we have to do is to go out there and play positive cricket. We have seen other teams gain momentum in the end. I am hoping for an all-round effort today. We have firepower in the batting. They will have to express themselves. It is a beautiful batting wicket. Chasing has not helped us. The pitch here always stays the same. We have 2 changes with Vijay Zol and Ashok Dinda coming in for Sachin Rana and Harshal Patel.'
Teams:
Rajasthan (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane, Karun Nair, Sanju Samson(w), Shane Watson(c), Stuart Binny, Steven Smith, Rajat Bhatia, James Faulkner, Kane Richardson, Pravin Tambe, Rahul Tewatia
Bangalore (Playing XI): Parthiv Patel(w), Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli(c), Vijay Zol, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Varun Aaron, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ashok Dinda
Match Preview:
Outclassed by Punjab in their previous match, Bangalore face another tough challenge at home when they take on Rajasthan at the Chinnaswamy stadium. The Shane Watson-led side, meanwhile, will be looking to return to winning ways after losing their previous game to Hyderabad. Bangalore are struggling to keep their chances alive in the tournament. Having already suffered five defeats in eight games, they are currently placed sixth with 6 points. Rajasthan are placed third in the points table with five wins and three losses and have 10 points.
Bangalore:
Having failed to exploit their home advantage to get back the momentum, Bangalore's famed batting lineup will hope to click against the dogged Rajasthan. Having come back after missing Bangalore's first four games due to a hamstring injury, Gayle has been explosive in short stints and is looking for that big one. Skipper Virat Kohli has appeared off-colour in the last few games and the 25-year-old would also be eager to get a big score. Yuvraj Singh, who was bought for a whopping Rs 14 crore, has not been able to live up to the billing and he will be keen to make an impact. Bangalore will be banking on AB de Villiers, who blazed away with another heroic effort smashing 53 off 26 balls in a losing battle against Punjab.
BLR's bowling attack looks balanced with pacer Varun Aaron (12 wickets), Mitchell Starc (11) and leg-spinner Yuzwendra Chahal (10) delivering the goods. Leg-spinner Chahal has been the surprise package for BLR - apart from the game against Hyderabad where he went wicketless, the leggie has picked up wickets in every game and has also been economical. Bangalore will be expecting the bowlers to continue their good work while they will be hoping for the mis-firing batting line-up to click.
Rajasthan:
Rajasthan, who have been performing consistently in the tournament, would have been disappointed that their batsmen could not chase down a modest target of 135 against Hyderabad in their last encounter. Shane Watson has been the key man in the RAJ set-up and it will be no different this time around. The Aussie all-rounder, who bagged three wickets for 13 in the last match, will look to get a big score with the willow. The young Karun Nair has shown a lot of promise at the top of the order and Rajasthan will expect a lot from him. Ajinkya Rahane, who fell for a duck in the last game, would look to get amongst the runs while Sanju Samson and Steven Smith will also be keen to make a mark.
In the bowling department, the 42-year-old leg-spinner Pravin Tambe continues to catch attention with his impressive performance. while skipper Watson has been in the thick of action with the ball. Kane Richardson has also done well with the ball for the Rajasthan side while Rajat Bhatia too has done a good job. Rajasthan have a balanced bowling attack with a lot of variety and they will be hoping to restrict the power-packed Bangalore line-up, which surprisingly has not fired yet.
Quotes:
It just hasn't clicked; I don't know why. In five out of the seven games we have played, we have lost too many wickets up front. We are not playing too well as a team yet: Albie Morkel on BLR's batting failures.
Teams:
Rajasthan (From): Ajinkya Rahane, Karun Nair, Sanju Samson(w), Shane Watson(c), Stuart Binny, Steven Smith, Rajat Bhatia, James Faulkner, Dhawal Kulkarni, Kane Richardson, Pravin Tambe, Abhishek Nayar, Ben Cutting, Tim Southee, Unmukt Chand, Ankush Bains, Kevon Cooper, Brad Hodge, Iqbal Abdulla, Dishant Yagnik, Vikramjeet Malik, Rahul Tewatia, Amit Mishra, Deepak Hooda, Ankit Sharma
Bangalore (From): Parthiv Patel(w), Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli(c), Sachin Rana, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Harshal Patel, Varun Aaron, Yuzvendra Chahal, Vijay Zol, Abu Nechim, Ravi Rampaul, Ashok Dinda, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Tanmay Mishra, Yogesh Takawale, Rilee Rossouw