Challengers eye redemption

Following a dismal start to their campaign, RCB look for turnaround of fortunes

Their aura diminished and confidence dented, the finalists of the second edition of the Indian Premier League desperately seek a reversal in fortunes as they take on Rajasthan Royals in an IPL IV match here at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday.

With just one win from four matches, the Challengers bring up the rear of the 10-team table, a situation reminiscent of the opening edition. The direct fallout of this poor performance has been a growing sense of dejection and disappointment among the loyal RCB fans. The social networking sites have become a sort of platform for these supporters to express their anguish and most of their ire is directed towards the massive change in personnel.

As if to rub salt into their wounds, all those players who have been snatched away from Challengers have been doing well for their respective new franchises; Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Bharath Chipli and Robin Uthappa to name a few.

Having refused to fully utilise the option of retaining four of their original players -- they retained only Virat Kohli --, the Vijay Mallya-owned team lost some of their key players to the more aggressive bidders.

That said, the current position of RCB isn’t the true reflection of the quality they have.

Any side that has the likes of Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan and skipper Daniel Vettori will fancy its chances to be in the top three. That they are at the bottom of the table right now could be because the team is finding it difficult to click together. Barring the first match when three of the top-order batsmen came up with good knocks, RCB’s batting in the subsequent matches has fallen apart. Kohli and de Villiers have been excellent but they have had little support from others to supplement their efforts.

 Dilshan has been their biggest let-down so far. The Sri Lankan has scored just one half-century -- against Mumbai Indians -- batting in an uncharacteristically languid pace.

Saurabh Tiwary is yet to join in the party while the talented Mayank Agarwal has failed to live up to the promise he showed in the first match. The bowling continues to depend heavily on Zaheer and Vettori and if one of them has an off-day, which has been the case so far, the opposition has a free run for 16 overs. The injury to left-arm seamer Dirk Nannes has been a big blow while they haven’t been helping their cause either by some sloppy ground-fielding and ordinary catching.

What also may not help RCB’s cause is the presence of two of their old players in the opposition camp in Tuesday’s clash. Dravid and Taylor -- one the ‘son of the soil’ and the other an adopted one -- aren’t just quite capable of dividing the support in the stands but their knowledge of the conditions here can be quite handy.

The Royals, coming off two consecutive defeats at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders, will be keen to put their campaign back on track. The absence of Johan Botha and Dravid through injuries was evident the other night in Kolkata as Shane Warne’s men were rolled over for a princely 81. Royals would be hoping for their speedy recovery to add some solidity to their batting.

Warne obviously is the trump card of their bowling and a lightning quick Shaun Tait can be equally lethal on his day. But a little indiscipline can prove to be a nightmare for his own side. On Tuesday night which of the Royals end their nightmarish run remains to be seen.

Teams (from):

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Daniel Vettori (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Saurabh Tiwary, Cheteshwar Pujara, Johan van der Wath, Ryan Ninan, Zaheer Khan, S Arvind, Asad Pathan, Charl Langeveldt, Abhimanyu Mithun, Rilee Rossouw, Jonathan Vandiar, CM Gautam, Luke Pomersbach, Nuwan Pradeep, Mohammad Kaif, Abrar Kazi, KB Arun Karthik, Raju Bhatkal, BN Bharath.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne (capt), Rahul Dravid, Shane Watson, Amit Paunikar, Johan Botha, Abhishek Raut, Ashok Menaria, Ross Taylor, Faiz Fazal, Amit Singh, Shaun Tait, Siddarth Trivedi, Aakash Chopra, Jacob Oram, Stuart Binny, Deepak Chahar, Nayan Doshi, Pankaj Singh, Samad Fallah, Pinal Shah, Dishant Yagnik, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ankeet Chavan, Aditya Dole, Sumit Narwal, Dinesh Salunke.