The Match: In the 30th game of the Indian Premier League, the Royal Challengers Bangalore will travel to the Feroz Shah Kotla to play the Delhi Daredevils. The two sides will go into the game with a win under their belt after going through a period of losses in the tournament.
How the two teams match up: The Delhi Daredevils have not had the best of times. Patchy performance has been the bane and that means that they have won only two of their five games. In fact, the second win came in the last game when they beat the Kings XI Punjab in a high-scoring match.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore had called upon the services of Chris Gayle in the previous game and he delivered rather well. Chasing a tricky score against the Kolkata Knight Riders, the pair of Gayle and Dilshan ensured that the side had had no problem in winning it.
Ground Conditions: In the last game at the Kotla, there was a lot of grass on the pitch that allowed the batsmen to play their strokes. If they use the same pitch, there will be much for the batsmen, if not, the bowling will find it easier to restrict the batsmen.
The Teams: Delhi had gone into the previous game with five seam bowlers – Ajit Agarkar, Morne Morkel, Irfan Pathan, Varun Aaron and James Hopes. There is hardly any doubt that the same set of bowlers could play if the pitch continues to show that tinge of green but there is also a need for the bowlers to bowl much better than what they have.
The batting line-up should remain the same, especially after they had scored 231 in the previous game against the Punjab.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to go in with the same batting line-up as well. Gayle’s century propped them up well and that will give the side a lot of confidence. Where the team will look to improve upon is at the bowling. Zaheer Khan’s spells have had the team struggling while only Vettori looks to be a bowler of note.
Players to look out for: The Delhi Daredevils will look to ensure that they can look at their captain Virender Sehwag to get going with their runs at the top of the order. Bangalore need the backup bowling to come up to the party.
Prediction: Bangalore will need their batsmen to fire to be able to overcome Delhi. Gayle will find it difficult against Morne Morkel.