The Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on the Chennai Super Kings in the first playoff of IPL 2011 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Bangalore had finished at the top of the points table and the Chennai Super Kings were rather fortunate to end second after Kolkata Knight Riders were stunned in a thriller by the Mumbai Indians.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Take On Chennai Super Kings In IPL playoffs
The Royal Challengers Bangalore have relied heavily on Chris Gayle in the tournament so far. His presence has made a lot of difference to the side’s fortunes, what with Bangalore winning eight of their last nine games. Gayle, in the process, has won the man of the match award on five of the occasions.
Chennai will look to exploit this over-reliance of Bangalore on Gayle, but will realise that the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are big-game players in their own right.
The Super Kings also need their top-order to fire. For some time now, the top three batsmen have failed to get going and too much has been expected from the middle-order. One of Murali Vijay or Suresh Raina needs to get cracking and that aggression should allow Michael Hussey to bat through the innings.
R Ashwin and Doug Bollinger will hold the bowling key to the fortunes of Chennai in this game.
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Chennai Super Kings IPL Qualifier 1 starts at 8.00 pm local time (1430 hours GMT)
See More:
