Bangalore to go with unchanged side

Daniel Vettori, captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore, has said he will go in to the qualifier against Mumbai Indians with the same team as the one that lost to Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday. The match against Chennai went down to the last over and Vettori said his players were still confident and knew they just needed to fine-tune things in the last five overs, particularly in the bowling department.

"I think I will go with the same team tomorrow [Friday]," Vettori said. "The team is in pretty good stead. We realised small things that went wrong in the last five overs. Prior to that, everything went as per plan."

On Tuesday, Bangalore went in with three seamers, with Vettori the lone specialist spinner. Vettori said the groundsman in Chennai had told him the track would be good for batting, so he was planning to stick with the same combination and rely on Chris Gayle to get through four overs of offspin.

"Chris and myself could target the right areas in the eight overs that we will be bowling and it will be hard to score too many runs. The players who have played in the last 15 games for us have performed well.

"We have to look at the wicket tomorrow. I played here quite some time back. The groundsman is saying the wicket will be good to play on tomorrow. Probably, the wicket for the final will turn a lot more; I do not know."

Bangalore managed to set Chennai 176 to win in the first qualifier, but their bowling let them down, leaving them with a knockout game against Mumbai. Vettori said the positive out of the Chennai game was that they had managed a competitive total despite their top performer so far, Chris Gayle, getting dismissed cheaply, but acknowledged the bowling needed some improvement.

"Chris did not score runs but we were able to put up a competing total. Virat Kohli played a superb game and has played well in the whole tournament. Last match was his best innings so far.

"Our batting has been pretty good in the whole tournament and sooner or later we will deliver with the bowling also. In the last two games Zaheer [Khan] has been at his best and has been taking wickets upfront. I am really pleased with the way he has bowled."

The winner of the Bangalore v Mumbai match will have to play the final the very next day, against Chennai.