The Bangalore Captain Kevin Pietersen will be looking closely at the batting line up to see what he can fix. On both their matches so far, the first wicket has gone in the first over, so the opening pair is something that will be troubling them. Whether Ross Taylor is likely to be replaced by Jesse Ryder or perhaps Mark Boucher will have to be seen. Pietersen will surely be counting on Rahul Dravid to continue his good work so far for the team and also on Jacques Kallis to press for a home advantage in Cape Town. Ideally the Bangalore team would like to put up a good total built from a solid start which they can then defend effectively under the lights.

In the first match, the Bangalore team put up a masterly bowling performance with Anil Kumble’s 5 wickets for just five runs, but in the second match the bowling seemed a little frayed at the edges. In an effort to contain the Chennai team Pietersen tried out as many as 8 bowlers, himself included.

Bowling is also a department that the Deccan team will be looking at very closely because this is a team that is perceived as leaning heavily on their batsmen which boasts names like Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs as the opening pair, and the likes of VVS Laxman and Kiwi all rounder Scott Styris.

Herschelle Gibbs will be of key importance to the Hyderabad team, not only because of his being a South African but also because of his stellar performance in recent times and in the first match as well. In their first match against the Kolkata team, Gibbs slammed 43 off 26 balls to put KKR on the back foot. He performed well in international cricket when South Africa was playing against the touring Australians as well as in domestic cricket wherein he represents the Cape Cobras, who are the domestic T20 champs.

Gilchrist will be looking to R P Singh and West Indian Fidel Edwards to get him his breakthroughs and to Styris and Pragyan Ojha to maintain the pressure and get timely wickets as well.

With both teams bent on extracting their best performances, last year’s two bottom of the table teams lock horns today at Cape Town.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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