The four teams that have qualified for the semi-finals are Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Mumbai Indians will take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first semi-finals of the third edition of the IPL and the match will be played at the Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

Earlier, the semi-final was supposed to be played in Bangalore, but because of the security issues surrounding the blasts outside the stadium, it was shifted out to Mumbai. This means that all of a sudden, the Mumbai Indians have a much better chance of beating the Royal Challengers Bangalore, on a wicket that they know a little better than their opposition.

The thing with Bangalore is that they have relied on, so far, on their pace bowling department to deliver the results. This has meant that the side has continued to unleash the pace bowling at the opposition, even as the pitches continued to slow down across the country due to the issues with the heat.

This will ensure that even at the unused wicket at the DY Patil, the pitch would have slowed down enough to assist the Mumbai bowlers more than it would assist the Bangalore pace bowlers.

Bangalore has to change their strategy around a bit. For one, they cannot keep relying on their pace bowlers, and hence, they will look to get in Roelof van der Merwe into the side. How they do it is a big question mark given that the side will need to put out one of the foreign players out of Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Kevin Pietersen and Ross Taylor.

Steyn is in good form, Kallis is too good an all-rounder to miss out, whereas Pietersen just has had a couple of knocks to remember and it will be difficult to dislodge him; which leaves Taylor to carry the drinks in all probabilities.

Mumbai Indians have had a couple of games where they have tried different things, and that will allow them to understand whom they select for the semi-finals. To me, Sachin Tendulkar needs to open with Shikhar Dhawan, and have Saurabh Tiwary, JP Duminy, Ambati Rayadu, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga as ten of their eleven players.

For the final spot, the toss-up could be between Ali Murtuza and Abhishek Nayar, and one gets the feeling that the side is preserving Murtuza for this game.

Mumbai will go into the match as favourites, but will know that it will need only one or two overs for the game to turn around and will need to guard against that.

Tag :- Abhishek Nayar   Dale Steyn   Kevin Pietersen   Kieron Pollard   Mumbai Indians   Royal Challengers Bangalore