 Jaipur will host the Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 49th game of the IPL this edition, and with only seven more matches to
go in the league stage after this match, the competition for places in the semi-finals
would have heated up to the extreme.
Bangalore, by the virtue of their win in the previous game against Kolkata
have 12 points off their 11 games, whereas Rajasthan are on 12 from 12 games.
This means that Bangalore need to win one of the remaining three to make their
position much better while two wins will give them a definite shot in the semi-finals.
On the other hand, Rajasthan has only two more matches to play including this
one and will need to win both to ensure that their place s secured in the knock-out
rounds.
Click for Live Score Card of Jaipur Rajasthan Royals Vs Bangalore Royal ChallengersBangalore would go into this game against the Royals on the high from having
won their last game against the Kolkata Knight Riders, having chased down a
rather biggish total. With Rahul Dravid exhibiting good batting, and
Robin Uthappa having smacked his third half century of the tournament and off
a very quick time, it cannot get more exciting when one looks at the batting
order.
That the skipper Anil Kumble even tried S Sriram is probably to add
the spinning option in the line-up, given that their batting is already strong;
consisting of Uthappa, Kallis, Kohli, Dravid, Cameron White and Ross Taylor.
This means that the side needs to strengthen their bowling and more so on wickets
away from their home ground in Bangalore where the pace and bounce of Dale Steyn
is the differentiator.
As compared to that, Rajasthan have been anything but ordinary as termed by
Gautam Gambhir in a post match conference, but the fact of the matter is that
they have yet to confirm their place in the semi-finals of the event. And in
order to do that, they will need to bat first, pile on the agony through Shane Watson, Yusuf Pathan and Michael Lumb, and then get going with the stronger
of their two departments; the bowling.
Of course, Rajasthan will do well not to drop catches in the game, as they
have done before. Dropping Sachin Tendulkar cost them the game on the
other night, and if they bow out of the tournament, that dropped catch would
have almost cost them the tournament as well. They cannot change that fact,
but what they can definitely do is to catch the remaining ones that come their
way.
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