Battle royal in the offing

Instead, a fair bit of the sheen has been taken off the clash between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Thursday night following injuries two key overseas players in Shane Warne’s contingent.

Winless after two games and struggling to piece together consistency, the Rajasthan Royals suffered double blows during their drubbing at the hands of the Delhi Daredevils, though there is promising news on the progress Yusuf Pathan has made from his shoulder injury.

Only last week, the Baroda all-rounder made the fastest hundred in Indian Premier League history, and has shown over the course of this domestic season that he respects neither reputation nor situation. Had Pathan been ruled out to go with the absence of South African skipper Graeme Smith and English all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas, it would have severely depleted the Royals.

Smith sustained twin fractures in the middle finger of his right-hand and Mascarenhas twisted his ankle, further setbacks for a team that will now have to rely on the experience of Damien Martyn and the promise of Johan Botha and Adam Voges.
During IPL I, Warne showed how adept he is at maximising the resources at his disposal, but even the Wizard of Oz will be hard pressed to rouse his forces in the absence of the Smith and Mascarenhas, and the banned Ravindra Jadeja.

Not that the Challengers will be complaining! After the sub-par display at the Eden Gardens, Anil Kumble’s men emphatically came to the party at the Chinnaswamy on Ugadi day, brushing aside Kings XI Punjab with an awesome batting display with Jacques Kallis in the forefront.

The South African, temporary owner of the Purple Cap for the most runs scored in this edition, has yet to be dismissed in two outings, and was the rock around which the Challengers orchestrated their remarkable run-chase, during which they topped 200 in an innings in the IPL for the first time. Kallis, though, will be the first to acknowledge the role played by Manish Pandey and, more tellingly, Robin Uthappa, who celebrated his promotion up the order to number three with the second fastest IPL fifty.

The formidable batting – when it clicks, like it did on Tuesday, it makes for spectaculat viewing – needs, however, to be complemented by more discipline in the bowling. Dale Steyn has tended to go for plenty, his pace playing into the batsmen’s hands, and the rest of the bowling hasn’t exactly set the tournament afire. The inability to string together dot balls has meant the opposition hasn’t been under too much pressure, a shortcoming that wouldn’t have gone unnoticed or unaddressed by Kumble and coach Ray Jennings.

Tuesday’s stirring eight-wicket win could see the fans thronging the Chinnaswamy stadium in droves. The Challengers are a totally different team with a roaring crowd behind them. It will be up to the Royals to silence the spectators, but minus some big names, that could prove a tall order.

Teams (from): Royal Challengers Bangalore: Anil Kumble (capt), Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey, Robin Uthappa, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Eoin Morgan, Mark Boucher, Praveen Kumar, R Vinay Kumar, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe, A Mithun, KP Appanna, CM Gautam, Udit Patel, B Akhil, Dillon du Preez, Shreevats Goswami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, S Sriram.
Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne (capt), Swapnil Asnodkar, Naman Ojha, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Paras Dogra, Damien Martyn, Adam Voges, Morne Morkel, Shaun Tait, Munaf Patel, Kamran Khan, Sumit Narwal, Amit Paunikar, Syed Ahmed Quadri, Abhishek Raut, Amit Singh, Siddharth Trivedi, Shrikant Wagh.