It was one hell of a battle when these two sides last met, with the Chennai Super Kings just edging the match with some atrocious hitting in the closing minutes of the game. Nothing but net run rate separates the two teams in the points tally as both sides come into the game with 8 points from seven matches each. Bangalore will be looking to register their fourth win on the trot after thrashing Rajasthan Royals by 46 runs in their last outing while Chennai, who fought really hard to grab two points in the last game, will need to be at their best to overcome Bangalore. This match is ought to be the match of the season.
Clash of Titans: Chennai Super Kings vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
After domineering their presence at home, CSK are out of den for clash with RCB at Bangalore.After a rather shaky start to this year’s campaign, defending champions CSK have finally managed to gain momentum with consecutive victories over two of the tournament’s best teams, Pune and Rajasthan. Chennai’s opening pair has taken on the mantle well enough with Francois Du Plessis in tremendous form, having 302 runs under his belt so far and Subramaniam Badrinath supporting the South African very well in the power play overs. Dwayne Bravo has played his role of accelerating in the second half of the innings to perfection. MS Dhoni seems to have found the lost touch and his last two innings were crucial in Chennai’s triumph.
The Super Kings have an exciting mix of pace and spin in their bowling department. The pace attack, led by Doug Bollinger and Nuwan Kulasekara has been very well assisted by Dwayne Bravo and can cause problems for the Bangalore batsmen. Dhoni might be tempted to open the bowling with Ravi Ashwin against the destructive Chris Gayle. Shadab Jakati and Ravindra Jadeja are the other spinners who will be looking to keep things quiet in the middle overs.
RCB’s batting could hold the key in this return match, as we have already seen Chris Gayle and AB de Villers sending oppositions into submission mode. To add to RCB’s delight, Tillakaratne Dilshan regained his lost touch against Rajasthan, which should make the sound of warning bells even stronger for Chennai.On the bowling front, KP Appanna’s four-wicket haul against Rajasthan has added more firepower to Bangalore’s bowling attack, especially the spin department, which will be spearheaded by skipper Vettori himself in the absence of Muttiah Muralitharan, who is expected to be benched again.
An intense battle is on the cards as the two finalists of IPL 4 – runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore and defending champions Chennai Super Kings – face off once again on Wednesday in the league’s fifth season at the M Chinnaswmay Stadium in Bangalore. It was one of the most thrilling encounter when these two teams met in the first leg this season, where CSK edged RCB in a last-ball thriller by chasing down 204 runs – this year’s highest total thus far. But with both Bangalore and Chennai coming into this match with three wins on the trot, it confirms that after an uncharacteristically scratchy start, the Titans of the IPL are back in business.
Tags: Chennai Super Kings, Cricket, CSK, IPL 2012, IPL 5, RCB, Royal Challengers Bangalore
