Date:12/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/12/stories/2008051255002000.htm

Sport

Daunting task ahead of Royal Challengers

Rakesh Rao

— Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

TIME TO FIRE: Royal Challengers Bangalore will be hoping that pacemen Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar come good against Kings XI Punjab.

MOHALI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) has reached a stage where one major point of interest is whether the teams from the bottom half can snatch points from those firmly in contention for the semifinal berths.

Should the present trend continue, the competitive nature of the event would become a casualty much before the closing stages of the league.

As things stand, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings are majestically placed to be among the semifinalists. Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils face serious threats from Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians.

Bangalore Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers are sharing the cellar and living merely on hope. On Monday, Bangalore gets a chance to take its first step towards redemption and reassure its fans that it is not as bad as it is made out to be.

Rahul Dravid’s men will take on Yuvraj Singh’s Punjab, a side that has far less worries. From each of its six defeats, Dravid claims to have taken out some positives. But in the remaining six outings, his team will have to take out points.

Any slip up will push the team beyond recovery. So far, a bunch of players with proven abilities in Test cricket has done Bangalore any good.

Jaffer out with injury

Though Wasim Jaffer is out with a fractured hand, the presence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dravid and Jacques Kallis in the top-order has only helped the opposition exert pressure in the early part of the innings.

The team remains unsure of its opening pair and has tested a new combination in almost every match. Among the bowlers, only Dale Steyn has made an impression.

Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar have looked inconsistent while Anil Kumble has been rendered ineffective. For a team low on morale, it will be a daunting task to stop the host.

After losing the first two matches, Punjab won five matches on the trot before the sequence was broken on Saturday. In spite of Kumar Sangakkara’s unavailability, the team’s batting looks good. The bowlers, too, have not done too badly. Indeed, Punjab has several performers to do the job in this brand of cricket. The odds are heavily stacked against Bangalore.

The teams (from):

Kings XI Punjab: Yuvraj Singh (captain), J. Hopes, K. Goel, R. Sarwan, M. Jayawardene, I. Pathan, P. Chawla, S. Sreesanth, V.R.V. Singh, U. Kaul, T. Srivastava, P. Dharmani, Gagandeep Singh and Ramesh Powar.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Rahul Dravid (captain), J. Arunkumar, S. Chanderpaul, M. Boucher, C. White, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, V. Kohli, Zaheer Khan, A. Kumble, D. Steyn, J. Kallis, Misbah-ul Haq, B. Chipli and S. Joshi.