The Royal Challengers, led by Daniel Vettori, are also coming into the match with a defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday evening in Bangalore after an impressive victory over Delhi Daredevils in their first fixture.
Chennai should strive to get full points in their second home tie tomorrow as this time they have better knowledge about the new turf at Chepauk, lack of which proved costly during their loss to Mumbai.
IPL 5/2012: Chennai Vs Bangalore T20 13th Match at Chennai.
Match timings are 12 Apr, 2012, 4 PM IST.
However, a lot would depend on Vijay, Raina and Dhoni finding their form. Prize catch of Chennai in the player auction, Ravindra Jadeja showed his class against Deccan when he hit a quickfire 48 and claimed career-best five for 16 and his role would also be crucial tomorrow.
Forced to defend modest totals, Chennai’s bowling has also looked lacklustre with speedsters Doug Bollinger and Albie Morkel unable to put batsmen under any real pressure.
Series Highlights: Most Runs | Centuries | Fifties | Fours | Sixes | Wickets | Catches
Chennai Super Kings Team : MEK Hussey, J Sharma, MS Dhoni, SK Raina, S Badrinath, KMDN Kulasekara, WP Saha, GJ Bailey, DE Bollinger, SB Styris, G Vignesh, BJ Hilfenhaus, M Vijay, RA Jadeja, DJ Bravo, R Ashwin, VY Mahesh, A Mukund, S Tyagi, S Anirudha, SB Jakati, S Ranp, K Vasudevadas, Faf du Plessis, JA Morkel,
Royal Challengers Bangalore Team : Z Khan, DL Vettori, TM Dilshan, M Muralitharan, AB de Villiers, CH Gayle, V Kohli, M Kaif, R Vinay Kumar, CA Pujara, SS Tiwary, AB McDonald, KBA Karthik, CK Langeveldt, KP Appanna, DP Nannes, LA Pomersbach, S Aravind, RR Bhatkal, CM Gautam, A Mithun, RR Rossouw, Abrar Kazi, Asad Pathan, Ryan Ninan,
In the spin department, ace off-spinner R Ashwin, who opened the attack against Deccan, also has not been able to pose any big challenge.
Royal Challengers, on the other hand, have their own set of problems especially after the way they capitulated against Kolkata Knight Riders and were restricted to 123 while chasing a challenging 165.
Explosive West Indies batsman Chris Gayle, who played a major part in taking the Bangalore outfit to the final last year, came a cropper yesterday but he will still hold the key to a big total.
South Africa’s AB de Villers, who scored 64 in their lung-opener against Delhi, will have to be consistent, while Virat Kohli too have to get over his single digit scores in the two matches so far.
Bangalore’s bowling spearheaded by India speedster Zaheer Khan and Sri Lankan veteran spinner Muthiah Muralitharan is their strength and comparatively better than Chennai’s.
