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Indian Premier League 2010
Bangalore bank on batsmen and India contingent
Siddarth Ravindran
March 8, 2010
Royal Challengers Bangalore
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In the second season, they muddled through the first half of the competition before a late surge under Anil Kumble's captaincy lifted them to the finals.
Going into this IPL season, Bangalore have two clear advantages over their start to the campaign in South Africa: first, in Kumble they have a fixed leader for the entire tournament, unlike the uncertainty surrounding who would take over once Kevin Pietersen left after a handful of matches in 2009.
Second, and perhaps more significantly, their Indian contingent looks much more formidable this season - the Karnataka trio of Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun and R Vinay Kumar have all had excellent domestic seasons while Sreevats Goswami, the Bengal wicketkeeper-batsman, topped the run-charts in the recent Vijay Hazare tournament with 568 runs in seven innings. With Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kolhi and Robin Uthappa likely to play most games, Bangalore won't be forced to field any makeweight Indian players in the XI unlike in previous seasons.
Coach Ray Jennings said the key to success in the tournament was to have a committed and motivated group of players. "To be the finalists in South Africa is an achievement but that's forgotten, we need to set new goals," he said. "It's a type of game in which the best side doesn't always win, so you have to make sure that you are aggressive, and be very passionate when you play."
New faces
Bangalore may not have splashed money on big names, but they have made two shrewd overseas buys. One is Ireland-born batsman Eoin Morgan who, with his inventive, made-for-Twenty20 strokeplay, looks a steal at US$220,000 after an assured first year as England's limited-overs finisher. The other is allrounder Steven Smith, who has made his name in Twenty20s with three solid seasons for New South Wales in the Big Bash and was key to their 2009 Champions League victory. Bangalore are a bit light on allrounders, which is where this legspinner and hard-hitting batsman comes in. His athletic fielding will also prove handy.
Watch out for
Vijay Mallya paid big money two years ago for Cameron White, when the batsman was still a relative unknown. White has had an indifferent couple of seasons with Bangalore, but is entering this tournament on the back of one of his most fruitful periods with Australia. In the absence of Kevin Pietersen and Ross Taylor in the initial stages, White could be the man to keep the boundary-count soaring for Bangalore.
Missing in action
Jesse Ryder is out of the entire tournament with an injury. Bangalore will miss not only his hard-hitting batting but also his disciplined medium-pace bowling and athletic fielding. Pietersen will join the squad only in late March and Taylor will be occupied with the series against Australia till the end of the month.
Strength
The batting. Even in their forgettable Champions League campaign, Bangalore's batsmen delivered in three of the four matches.
Weakness
The bowling. Dale Steyn isn't as feared in Twenty20 as he is in Tests, Anil Kumble hasn't played regular cricket for a long time, and the other bowling options aren't names that batsmen will lose sleep over. On benign Indian tracks, the opposition should fancy running up big scores.
X-Factor
A virtually unknown Manish Pandey became famous after slamming a century against Deccan Chargers last year. He has followed that up with a superb Ranji Trophy season, topping the run-charts with 882 runs.
IPL 2009 - The key figures
Final position: Runners-up
Top scorer: Jacques Kallis with 361 runs at 27.76
Top wicket-taker: Kumble with 21 wickets at 16.52 and economy-rate of 5.86
Best result: Seven-wicket win over in-form Delhi Daredevils to stay in race for semi-finals
Worst result: 92-run loss to Chennai Super Kings in their second match
Highest team score: 176 for 4 v Kolkata
Lowest team score: 87 v Chennai
Prediction for 2010
Expect them to make the semi-finals.
Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo
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© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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Big fan on Bangalore. I like the stabilising calmness of Kallis, Dravid, Boucher etc, mixed in with the raw aggression of Van Der Merve and Pieterson. But the name to watch out for is Ross Taylor. He has a great eye, and hits a lot of sixes. I think if Bangalore can bowl to a good standard they have the batsmen to set/chase anything.
Posted by Ajoogle on (March 13 2010, 07:34 AM GMT)Could this IPL be Uttappa's come back?
Posted by schumanth007 on (March 11 2010, 17:28 PM GMT)We are game; we are game, game for more We are game; we are game, game for more We are game; we are game, game for more Royal Challengers game for moreee...... go challlengers go....this the best IPL team by far this season...
Posted by prashanthbm88 on (March 11 2010, 17:21 PM GMT)well RCB has good chance of making to semis coz v gotta mix of youth n experience where almost all youngsters have tasted n plyd @ highest level. my line up wud be : Kallis Pandey Dravid Kohli Morgan White goswami / gautham Vinay Kumble Steyn / Merwe and Mithun .
Posted by DeepCG on (March 11 2010, 05:15 AM GMT)RCB has a great chance to make it to Semis this time aswell, their Indian contingent is quite formidable & they the most balanced Indian line among all teams, Kohli, Pandey, Uthappa, Vinay, Mithun, Goswami are all in form, even International players like Cameroon white, Eion Morgan, Kallis & Steyn have been consistently doing well from the past few months, we can never ever sideline players like Rahul Dravid & Anil Kumble. only drawback is they will miss Ross the boss for the first half of the tournament. My Playing XI - Uthappa, Kallis, Pandey, Dravid, Morgan, White, Goswami, Kumble, Vinay Kumar,Mithun, Vande Merve or Dale Steyn
Posted by royalg on (March 10 2010, 19:04 PM GMT)this is one of my fav team to win the title this season. with the 20/20 players they hav such as morgan, pandey,white, goswami. they can do extremely well, they biggest loss is ross taylor but hav a gud replacement in either steve smith or cameron white. i think this team hav a gud bunch of young indian talent, not eing biased but south zone right no whav the best talented youngsters espcially from karnataka and tamil naidu. goswami shud hav been selected ahead of saha for 20/20 world cup. and i think boucher is a waste for rcb goswami much better player. i still want chennai to win but gud luck to bangalore royals tooo. i hope pandey and vinay kumar make it to the final 15 for india.
Posted by raghu1122000 on (March 10 2010, 12:08 PM GMT)@rsb.. dude rcb has the best indian contingent in virat, manish pandey, rd, anil kumble, goswami(top rungetter in domestic season), abhimanyu mithun, vinay kumar(both in the leading wicket takers)... all of them in good form.. no other team has the indian players in such good form.. well... their biggest strength is to comeback from the most hopeless situations, a sign no other team has shown though all the teams have been in hopeless situations(except for csk in both seasons) but couldnt comeback as strongly as rcb. plus this season , they have cameron white and morgan two players in rocking form.. i dont need to elaborate on details, I assume u follow world cricket..
Posted by mcuterahul on (March 10 2010, 11:41 AM GMT)controverstial team ha ha ur funny!!!!!! RCB nvr had evn a single controversy.....kkr has been the most controversial team 2 be more specific.....RCB has the best team....steyn has been the best bowler in india....kumble not good on indian wickets ha ha.....he is the highest wicketaker for india.....u dont evn have a bit knowledge bout RCB.....rsb 85 u r just sledeging thm because u hate thm!!!! be frank....RCB will rock ipl 3.....go challengers win ipl 3......
Posted by rsb85 on (March 09 2010, 20:28 PM GMT)Rcb has been the most controversial team in ipl 1 and in ipl 2 with some SA players in SA they made it to the finals ...rcb is like pak lost in ist ipl and made good comeback in ipl2 ...i agreed to the point that mallya has acute cricketing brain ... who bought all the oldies includin sunil joshi ...and wen team performance wqas bad sacked all ... bought all players from msibah of pakistan to chennai superstar's icl player sriram... acumen?? let us see its composition kallis performer in Sa but a loser in india with both bowlin and ability to hit indian spin . steyn the paid holiday tourist nd so calld pietersen ryder the drunkard amateur smith and gr8 but not attackin dravid .. kumble was good in Sa in bouncing pitches but in ipl1 was non entity and also the thrashin in recent exhibition nmatches from domestic players show the form except ross no one can save RCB from repeating IPL1 's succes chak de !!! my 4 DD,CSk, DC,MI
Posted by ChanduRockers on (March 09 2010, 18:29 PM GMT)RCB the champions! I am not big fan of RCB but they deserve champs. The players in the team all r rocking now. Kallis,Taylor,Morgan,Dravid,Pandey,Kohli. I am very happy Dravid increased T20 style in recent domestic season. Kevin has expectations. Craig White is in 100% touch. Bowling: Domestic players performed well Domestic season and they must do the same performance again. Kumble as a captain fentasticcckkkk. Could this IPL be Uttappa's come back???