Royal Challengers clash swords with Kings

After a performance reminiscent of their disastrous campaign in the inaugural Indian Premier League, last season’s runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will be keen to put their campaign back on track when they square off against Kings XI Punjab in the third edition of the T20 event on Tuesday.

It is a festive atmosphere in the state with Ugadi set to be celebrated on match day but whether Anil Kumble’s boys can provide some more joy to the RCB fans in their first home tie of the season is the big question, particularly against the backdrop of that seven-wicket mauling at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday.

Probably, RCB’s only solace is that they are up against another side which has also lost its opening encounter to Delhi Daredevils at home turf, and more importantly is yet to gain its full strength with Shaun Marsh and James Hopes yet to check in.

Anyhow, it is better to set one’s own house in order rather than to hinge on opposition’s weakness and RCB’s first priority must be to shore up their batting.

The failure of the batsmen to click was the pertinent reason behind the opening blues where the top-order perished to reckless strokes save a valiant Kallis who top-scored with an unbeaten 65. Same was the case with Kings XI too where ace batsman Yuvraj Singh, skipper Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene all combined to contribute just 21 runs last Saturday.

For RCB, Manish Pandey looked out of place during his seven-ball stay and hardly looked the batsman who topped the Ranji run chart this season while fresh signing Eoin Morgan perished to his favourite reverse sweep, employed in an inopportune time. The Bangalore side lost wickets whenever they looked to have escaped from a rut, hindering the momentum.

Teams

Royal Challengers Bangalore: A Kumble (Capt), B Akhil, K Appanna, M Boucher, R Dravid, D Du Preez, S Goswami, J Kallis, V Kohli, B Kumar, P Kumar, A Mithun, E Morgan, M Pandey, K Pietersen, S Smith, S Sriram, D Steyn, R Taylor, R Uthappa, R Van Der Merwe, V Kumar, C White

Kings XI Punjab: K Sangakkara (Capt), Y Abdulla, L Ablish, A Singh, A Barath, B Sharma, M Bisla, R Bopara, P Chawla, K Goel, J Hopes, M Jayawardene, M Kaif, B Lee, V Malik, S Marsh, I Pathan, R Powar, R Sodhi, Sreesanth, S Srivastava, T Srivastava, J Theron, Y Singh

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/Rattled-Royal-Challengers-clash-swords-with-Kings-XI/articleshow/5687956.cms