RCB vs CSK, 34th match at Bengaluru, IPL, Apr 25 2012 - Match Result

11.00pm The game has been officially called off. The groundstaff need another 45 minutes to get the ground ready (even if it stops raining), and the cut-off time is only 20 minutes away.

It's been a frustrating day, with the covers coming on and off, though the drizzle never went away. Not a ball was bowled, and the points are shared.

Thanks all for keeping company during the rain. See you all tomorrow, when Pune take on Deccan. Let's hope the rain stays away!

10.50pm Mohamed Shahid provides a geography lesson: "The Geography of Bangalore's weather is this. It can never get really hot here. 38C in this area is enough to create a LOW Pressure in this region and with sea at 350Km's on both sides. it certainly has to get the clouds in."

On TV, they say there's still no official word. Absolutely pouring in Bangalore. 25 minutes to cut-off time. Surely by now they know they can't get the covers off and get the outfield ready in time. Anything for ratings, eh?

10.45pm Stadium emptying rather rapidly, says a friend.

And now Mohandas Menon tweets: "Play called off. Points shared!"

Chennai Super Kings also tweet: "That's the end.. The match has been called off.. Both teams share a point each." Though they add that they are waiting for official confirmation.

Aakarsh: "Always used to wonder if there is no way that the whole outfield is covered within minutes not manually so that the play can resume as soon as it stops raining??? #over ambitious and frustrated." Well, in Sri Lanka they used dozens of people to quickly get the covers out and cover the entire outfield.

Ankit: "5-over matches rather remind me of ESPN Cricinfo Howzat Cricket game. Really enjoy playing it and all of you who are not playing it are surely missing something !!! Pure entertainment :)"

10.35pm Rain getting a bit stronger, more covers coming out. It's getting pretty heavy now, very little chance of a game.

10.30pm Ok, covers back on now. The groundstaff are certainly being made to earn their salary. The drizzle continues.

CK: "Yes the ticket amount will be refunded as long as NOT a single ball is bowled .. I checked it in the afternoon itself as the city was gloomy thru the day."

Raka: "5 over matches remind me of Hong Kong cricket sixes. 6 over matches. Super fun. Robin Singh used to be a star there." And Russell Arnold.

Arvind: "@Clinton, Definitely no. Are we coming to that part of cricket where we are gonna ask every bowler to bowl 1 over each?!"

10.20pm Still a light drizzle, but the covers are off.

Clinton: "An hour left to start of the shortest cricket match ever! :D Excited about watching it! Hope it begins as a 5-over a side match!" Hmm, are there more fans of 5-over matches?

10.10pm Statsman Mohandas Menon tweets from the ground: "Light drizzle now. Covers are brought back. Overall looks bleak!"

Sathish: "In case the match is abandoned, is the ticket amount refunded?" It was last year, when RCB v Rajasthan Royals was washed out. Think it should be this year as well.

Vishwa: "Tejas, I feel your pain man. its been the same at the start of the season with the league in LA. Thu-Fri it begins to get gloomy and wet and ruins the weekend games. As Shakespeare once didn't say: Cricket and Rains: The twains shall always meet."

9.55pm Still continues to rain. Some people are leaving the stadium, not expecting any play today.

The drizzle has become a bit lighter, the ground staff is out and about, Supersoppers around as well. Some of the covers coming off.

Tanveer: "Unlike the DC-KKR abandoned match where Deccan were definitely the happier bunch with the spare point, I think here, both CSK and RCB will be disappointed at not having the chance to battle it out for 2 points and moving up the standings."

Tejas: "@Sourabh, talking about the 8 pm rains, I play club cricket here in NJ, US during the summer and I cant keep a count of how many games get washed away because the rains prefer to fall over the weekend when the games are scheduled. The whole week might be nice but weekends, it starts raining. And if Eden Gardens cant have a good drainage, imagine the drainage of the grounds we play on."

Srinivasan on everybody's favourite commentator: "A Shastrism for the moment - "I get the feeling that if this rain continues, the match will be abandoned"."

9.40pm For those of you wondering, it's still pouring in Bangalore.

Sourabh is in a jam: "For the second day today, I have nothing to do after returning from office. Damn these 8 p.m. rains. Just can't think of a way to utilise my time. IPL becomes a part without you even knowing. Any suggestions what I might do now?"

Narayan Gopalan: "I wonder, which of the two teams would be happier in case the match is abandoned."

Ran Vijay Singh: "Most of those who are at Chinnaswamy right now must be cursing the rain God, but they are the same people who actually have been praying for rains for past 15 days given the weather at B'lore. God does listen to us and sure got some sense of humor, i must say."

9.25pm Still raining, and getting a bit heavier as well.

Senthil Mohan: "I still don't see a feedback from someone that "I live 2 miles north from the ground and this is just a passing shower:" :)" Well, I'm sitting two kilometres away from the ground and it is still raining here. I can't judge whether it is a passing shower or not.

Mitrajit channels his inner Shastri: "Bangalore gets the first rains of the season. And when it rains, it pours."

Ravi: "1. Gayle 2. Simmons (wk) 3. Samuels 4. Pollard 5. Darren Bravo 6. Dwayne Bravo 7. Sammy 8. Russell 9. Cooper 10. Roach 11. Narine. Ten bowlers to bowl Two overs each."

Boogoo: "@ Senthil Mohan. I am 8000km from the ground and unfortunately the rain is quite heavy and persistent."

9.10pm Rishi: "@km2: U forgot Fidel Edwards ! He can be really menacing with his pace and bounce."

Kahrithikeyan: "5 overs a side match reminds me of those one-last-match-before-light-fades we played during school days #nostalgic." Ah yes, and the debates over the light when the first team finishes batting and doesn't want to bowl.

Shawn: "The key to Chennai's success in IPL has been their batting depth. If you look at the current team, 10 out of 11 players are pretty good batsmen for T20 format(Haven't seen Yo Mahesh bat that much)".

Still raining in Bangalore, the covers remain on.

9.00pm Priyashrav: "After the arguable success of the Rain dance,innovative genius Danny Morrison cracks the code to the Drought dance in order to stop the rain today. Go Danny!"

km2 notes: "West Indies can field a super strong T20 team if they want! 1. Gayle 2. Simmons 3. Samuels 4. Pollard 5. Bravo 6. Russell 7. Sammy 8. Ramdin 9. Bishu/Rampaul/Shillingford 10. Roach 11. Narine....Hard hitting batsmen+ Depth in Bowling!"

Karthik: "Maybe Dan Morrison thinks its a marvellous night for a moondance. Wait, wasn't it Van Morrison?" Van certainly, and perhaps Dan as well.

Samir Shah: "I was watching "Dancing with the stars" yesterday. I guess Danny is practicing to be on that show soon. Watch out people."

8.55pm Just a reminder that the cut-off time for the game to start is 11.20pm. We can have a five-over game starting then.

The drizzle continues, the covers remain on.

Sasi: "Interesting to notice CSK replaced jakati with Mahesh, now it seems CSK has more finetuned bowling balance in the team(4 fast + 3 spin)."

Varun: "The more the match is shortened,the more the chances of chasing down any target for the RCB with Gayle and AB.CSK will be wanting a full game to have chances against this RCB team."

West Indies have just been bowled out for 218, Chanders is the last man dismissed. Head here to follow the Test.

8.50pm Cricketsimpleton: "I believe Dwayne Bravo is the far better allrounder than gayle, pollard or russell and newbie cooper and really Windies should miss him than anyone in their team."

Tarun: "Its the other way round. Murali will know how and what to bowl to Mahi n co"

Sundar: "@Sleep hunter,Murali was RCB's best bowler in their last match against CSK.!! nothing to do with opponents,its more of the balance ther are looking for."

Ram: "Why is there so much of talk about Murali??? Strange thing about RCB is that Mithun is still not getting a game.. He is far better than H Patel." The trouble with Mithun is that he has proved very expensive in T20s, a career economy nearing 9.

8.45pm Plenty of Gayle fans mailing in, but Rampaul isn't one of them: "Gayle will never get the respect like Lara and Shiv, too bad he is playing here instead of playing for his country against Oz!"

Sleepin' Hunter's theory on why Murali isn't there: "Probably because the CSK players can read his variations a little better, having spent 3 years with the team."

Chennai have left out Bollinger, and Albie Morkel comes in.

Bad news: It has begun to drizzle again in Bangalore. Danny Morrison is dancing on the outfield, am not entirely sure why. Any creative guesses?

Sumal: "Well I am pumped up to see a Kohli-Morkel clash!Kohli can hit the long ball as well!" Here's the scorecard of that previous Morkel-Kohli clash.

8.35pm Virat Kohli to lead RCB as Vettori has a niggle. Allrounder Andrew MacDonald comes in as the fourth overseas player. Dhoni just can't win a toss, can he? He's lost five of the last six (and I haven't checked before that).

Boogoo: "Anybody got any idea's why no Murali? Better option than Mcdonald in my opinion!" I think they expect Appanna and Dilshan to be their spinners. Gayle could chip in too, if necessary.

Desaidon: "Pressure seems to bring out the best in Kohli, will be interesting to see if the extra burden of captaincy makes him a better performer today."

Ajay Natesh: "Virat to lead.. That makes it very interesting, who will win.. Current Indian Team Captain or the Future one ;)"

Toss Bangalore win the toss and choose to bowl. Kohli says that with McDonald coming in, they have seven batsmen which is why he is backing RCB to chase.

8.25pm Both teams warming up, still no word on the game's start time. The good news is there's no rain, the covers are off, the Supersoppers still zipping around.

Ravi: "Chawla being a proper legspinner loops the ball and that gives ample time for batsman to decide on their shots. He needs to develop more variations...in the full over today i did not see him bowling a flipper or a flat straighter one which could have been more effective. Rahul sharma ended up being a victim of Gayle in a similar fashion, he kept looping them and gave easy pickings to gayle."

8.15pm Abhijeet: "The only difference is Chawla is proper legspinner once hailed as successor of Anil Kumble and Kohli is just another trundler."

8.00pm The covers are off, the rain has stopped. The Super Soppers still doing their job around the outfield, the two teams are warming up. Pitch inspection in another 10 minutes.

"We want Gayle storm, not thunder storm," says a placard held up by a fan.

Shivabhaskar S: "If RCB win tonight, they will be catapulted 5 positions up in the points table. If CSK win instead, they will move 3 positions up. Both teams have an opportunity to shift their positions to the better half of the table. Meaning,a critical advantage the result of this match will be for either of the teams that emerge as a winner tonight!"

Narayan Gopalan is looking at the big picture: "A gayle storm wont reduce the price of veggies or benefit farmers - a thunderstorm could!"

7.30pm Greetings, second game of the day coming up. Game one was a thriller in Mohali, where Robin Peterson and Ambati Rayudu turned it on late, and a game that Punjab had all but sewn up with two overs to go ended up in defeat.

Peterson and Rayudu's game-changing onslaught in the penultimate over was reminiscent of Albie Morkel's assault on Virat Kohli when Chennai Super Kings stole the game from Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier this season. It's Bangalore v Chennai again, though a drizzle through the evening in Bangalore means we could be in for a delayed start.

Here's what the points table looks like at the moment.