 The seventh match of the third edition of the IPL will be played on Tuesday, the
16th of March and it will be between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings
XI Punjab. The match will be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
Anil Kumble will lead the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the game and much
like the last edition of the tournament, where it was Anil Kumble ability
to sustain the pressure, both as a bowler and as a captain, a lot will depend
on how he goes about his business in the game. One had not heard much from the
team before the start of the tournament, and that was probably a part of the
strategy, a strategy to keep low and let the bat and ball do the talking.
Click Here to Watch Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kings XI Punjab LiveThe onus will probably be on the two other senior men as well; Rahul Dravid
and Jacques Kallis. Dravid is usually not known to play this format of the game
as well as we have seen him play the Test matches, while Kallis seemed to be
getting there, but one cannot be sure whether the conditions in India will allow
them to get going with their natural game against a team which seem to have
the firepower to get the big runs.
The Punjab team would have already played in one game before this and will
understand the team composition they need to take in for the game. Irfan Pathan, who was left out of even the 30-member squad for the ICC World T20
will be one of the certainties, and he will need to use this platform to prove
that he it had been a mistake to leave him out of the side.
Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar will fight it out for the spinners' spot, and
unless it is sure that the pitch is going to be a slow and low one, one cannot
see both the players playing in the starting eleven. After all, with the likes
of Yusuf Abdullah and the rest of them who can bowl some really good,
quick bowling, it will not augur too well to have a portly off-spinner whose
forte is neither fielding, nor batting in this format.
The match will be start at 4.00 pm, and being a day game, the spinners could
just more into the play. This could mean that Yuvraj Singh, who has had
a couple of hat-tricks in the tournament before, will come into play. My bet
is on Kings XI Punjab winning this one, but only just!
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