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Bangalore v Deccan in IPL third-place play-off

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Bangalore v Deccan in IPL third-place play-off

As consolation prizes go, a place in this year’s Champions League isn’t a bad one, and that’s what the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Deccan Chargers will be contesting in the IPL’s third-place play-off on Saturday.

Deccan, who finished the group stage of the season with five straight wins, had their colours lowered by the Chennai Super Kings in the second semi-final where they were defeated by 38 runs while chasing a moderate 143-run total.

Bangalore also suffered a fairly comprehensive defeat at the hands of the Mumbai Indians in Wednesday’s semi-final, with their bowlers conceding a whopping 77 runs from the final five overs to allow Sachin Tendulkar’s team to reach a commanding 184-5, which Anil Kumble’s men couldn’t chase down.

Haemorrhaging  runs is a problem Deccan have been afflicted with themselves this season, and while they only conceded 46 runs from the final five overs in their semi-final, there is still room for improvement. They only need to look to Chennai’s performance in that match to know that.

Both sides then will be looking to plug the numerous holes in their respective bowling attacks if they are to finish the season on a positive note.

Deccan will also want a greater contribution from their skipper against Bangalore in this match than Adam Gilchrist gave with the bat in the semi-final against Chennai, when he was dismissed for 15 from 20 balls as the CSK bowlers applied relentless pressure to the Deccan openers.

No doubt it will be a feat Bangalore seek to emulate here and with the world’s No. 1 Test bowler, Dale Steyn, leading their attack and with Kevin Pietersen delivering a successful spell of spin bowling in their semi-final at this Mumbai ground a few days ago, they might be well placed to do so.

We’ve seen enough Twenty20 cricket by now to know that while one man can’t win a match on his own an individual’s contribution can turn a game on its head and both sides have plenty of batsmen capable of doing so.

Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs and Andrew Symonds are the overseas stars with that capability for Deccan, while Bangalore will know first-hand from their two previous encounters this year the damage that Tirumalasetti Suman and Rohit Sharma can do if they’re allowed to settle in.

Kumble’s team though can match that with Jacques Kallis, who has more runs than anyone except Tendulkar this year, as well as Pietersen, Robin Uthappa and Rahul Dravid.

With those batting cards, and the way both bowling attacks have given away runs at the death at times this season, this match looks set to be a higher scoring affair than Deccan’s semi-final, when they were dismissed for 104.

Gilchrist’s team, who were the 2009 IPL champions, will draw confidence from the knowledge they defeated Bangalore on the two occasions they played one another in the group stage of the competition: by seven wickets the first time around and by 13 runs in their second match.

Unfortunately though they had the same winning record against Chennai before their semi-final, and it didn’t count for much in that match.

Deccan were sloppy in the field in their semi-final – three dropped catches, all regulation chances, will testify to that. Bangalore, who, in Kallis and Pietersen, have a pair of batsmen who will make opponents pay for their mistakes, have every reason to be positive that like Chennai, they can reverse the results of the regular season against Deccan here.

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