RCB have just 12 points on the board from their 6 wins in 12 matches and if they are to harbour any hopes for the semi final berth in this DLF IPL 2009, they will have to play above themselves and carve out a win today. It is now or never for them; a real do or die situation. Delhi being the strongest team in the DLF IPL with 18 points so far will be a difficult proposition for the RCB unless they manage to elevate their game.

RCB’s batting lineup has failed to live up to its promise and big guns such as Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa and Jesse Ryder have not performed to potential; have in fact been downright disappointing. The opening combination itself is a problem and among the international cricket players, only Ross Taylor has looked dependable. Taylor will need a lot of support if the Bangalore team is to have a hope of winning today.

The bowling also have been somewhat pedestrian in parts, but what will give confidence to the team will be their last match against the Chennai Super Kings which they managed to win; the bowlers having restricted M S Dhoni’s boys to just 129 runs.

So far Delhi has won each one of the three matches (counting last year’s DLF IPL’s two matches as well as this year’s match) when they have gone head to head with the Bangalore Boys. In their first encounter this year DD beat Bangalore by six wickets.

Delhi as the most comfortably placed team in the tournament cannot afford to be complacent simply because the winning momentum is crucial to keep going. After their shock defeat at the hands of the Kings XI Punjab on 15 May, they regained their winning ways when they beat Rajasthan Royals on Sunday. Delhi has their own troubles to worry about: for one the runs seemed to have dried up for Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir is not among the runs either. The world’s best opening pair is not on song however luckily for Delhi this has not dented their chances. AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dinesh Karthik have propped up the batting of the Delhi team whenever required.

Sehwag was however reported in the cricket news as saying, “I want to get among the runs before the semi-finals. That would be great for the team,” and this may well prove dangerous for RCB tonight!

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

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