Royal Challengers Bangalore v Somerset - 2011 Champions League T20 -
Match Preview
Royal Challengers Bangalore will be eying their first win of the ongoing Champions League T20 tournament when they play Somerset in a league clash at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, today, Monday October 3, 2011.
The IPL side, after facing back to back defeats, is now placed at the bottom of Group B. The Challengers faced a massive nine-wicket defeat at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders last week despite setting an intimidating 169-run total after being put in to
bat. After having lost two of their four group games, RCB need to win the remaining two with a huge margin to keep their hopes of making the tournament’s final four alive.
The Daniel Vettori-led RCB have been disappointing in the tournament so far, and the untimely injury to their South African import, AB de Villiers, only added to their problems.
The formidable batting line-up of RCB, featuring likes of Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virat Kohli and Saurabh Tiwary has not sparked yet in the league and the RCB fans must be hoping for someone to light up the ground today.
The well settled bowling attack of Somerset Sabres features skipper Alfonso Thomas, George Dockrell and Steve Kirby. Their spin attack, including the likes of Murali Kartik and Roelof van der Merwe, has also done well in the tournament and the RCB batsmen
would have to be wary of these two spinners on the slow and sluggish Bangalore wicket.
“Our bowling and fielding, in particular, need to improve dramatically if we want to give ourselves a chance of winning against Somerset,” said the RCB skipper, Daniel Vettori while talking to the media reporters ahead of the must win game against Sabres.
The traditional Bangalore deck has a bit of bounce in it and favours the bowlers; however, showers in Bangalore over the past couple of days would have left the wicket a bit moist.
The County side is expected to play an unchanged squad on Monday, barring injuries. The RCB on the other hand, might play either of Arun Karthik or Asad Pathan for Mohammad Kaif who has struggled with the bat in the past two games.
Likely teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virat Kohli, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Mayank Agarwal, Daniel Vettori, Raju Bhatkal, J Syed Mohammad, Dirk Nannes, S Aravind
Somerset Sabres: Craig Kieswetter, Peter Trego, Roelof van der Merwe, James Hildreth, Nick Compton, Jos Buttler, Arul Suppiah, George Dockrell, Steve Kirby, Alfonso Thomas, M urali Kartik
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