Bangalore face Kolkata test

De Villiers setback for hosts in crucial battle of winless IPL teams

Hopefully refreshed, and rejuvenated, after their last-ball heartbreak against the Warriors on Friday night, Royal Challengers Bangalore must win, and win well, to get their campaign back on track. They are, however, not in as desperate a situation as Gautam Gambhir’s Kolkata Knight Riders, who have lost both their games so far, and who will be eliminated from the semifinal race if they fail to break their duck.

The Challengers had a fairly ordinary outing against the Warriors the other night, and will therefore take heart from the fact that even so, they managed to push the contest into the last delivery. That is, of course, just one way of looking at it. The more realistic view Daniel Vettori, coach Ray Jennings and the rest of the team will embrace is ruing the opportunity of not getting off to a winning start, and of looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Despite no batsman making a significant contribution, the Challengers posted a mid-170s total on a very good strip; notwithstanding a plethora of misfields and a couple of dropped catches, they still had the Warriors on the mat at 83 for four after 12 overs. That’s when their bowling and outcricket went decisively to pieces, allowing Ashwell Prince and Johan Botha to launch a stirring, and eventually match-winning, fightback.

It’s precisely such meltdowns that the Challengers will seek to avoid against the embattled Knights, rocked by successive losses in Hyderabad to Somerset and the South Australian Redbacks. Saying that, the Challengers’ cause hasn’t been helped by the ruling out of the charismatic AB de Villiers, the aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman who broke his left middle finger during fielding practice on Wednesday morning.

There might be a like-for-like replacement in Tillakaratne Dilshan, the Sri Lankan skipper, but by no means will it be a straight swap. The Challengers have other keeping options, so they might replace de Villiers with another overseas pro who can provide a more incisive bowling option.

As much as the bowling, the hosts will also need to up their fielding standards. Against the Warriors, they were tardy from top to toe. An encore won’t go down well with Jennings, a hard taskmaster who abhors elementary, avoidable mistakes.

Dav Whatmore too wouldn’t have been thrilled with what he has seen from the Knights. After a narrow victory over Auckland in their opening qualifying game -- an effort that was enough to secure them a main-draw slot -- the Kolkata side has slumped to three consecutive defeats. They have batted well at times and bowled well at other times, but as a unit and collectively, they have failed to fire in tandem.

There is so much quality in the Knight Riders’ ranks that it renders their poor record in this Champions League fairly mind-boggling. The potential for damage that batsmen like Gambhir himself, Jacques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschate carry is mammoth; the bowling is a beautiful mix of skill and cunning, though Brett Lee’s lack of penetration must worry Gambhir -- himself looking for a few confidence-boosting runs -- no end.