Tough test awaits batsmen

Of the eight teams that participated in the Champions League in 2009, only three have made it again to the second edition, which starts on Friday. While Royal Challengers Bangalore and Wayamba did not have a successful tournament last year, Victoria made it to the semi-finals before losing heavily to eventual champions New South Wales.

This time, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, who were the top teams of IPL 2010, will look to improve the record of Indian teams in the Champions League. Bangalore, who finished third in IPL 2010, will have the services of Ross Taylor, who was their top run-getter in the 2009 edition, and the big-hitting Cameron White, who played for Victoria last time. Wayamba will depend heavily on the form of Mahela Jayawardene, who was one of the top batsmen in IPL 2010. The table below summarises the batting performance of RCB, Victoria and Wayamba in the last edition of the Champions League.

The pitches in South Africa are expected to provide more assistance to the bowlers and will probably make the contests between bat and ball more even. The challenge for Indian teams will be to adjust to these conditions after playing the IPL 2010 on relatively batting-friendly tracks in India. The Champions League in 2009 was not a very high scoring tournament and the batting averages were lower than those in the three seasons of the IPL. The 2008 and 2010 editions of the IPL held in India were dominated by batsmen and had a much higher rate of scoring while the 2009 edition held in South Africa was a tougher test for batsmen.

The table below summarises the Powerplay stats across the three seasons of the IPL and the Champions League 2009. The scoring rates and averages in IPL 2009 are much lower than the other two IPL seasons due to the loss of early wickets in many matches. The Champions League also shows a drop in scoring rate and average which is because of the better quality of bowling that was on view. A scoring rate of nearly 7.9 runs per over and an average of over 32 indicates that IPL 2010 was mostly dominated by batsmen.

Across the three editions of the IPL, the spinners have proved to be extremely useful both as run-curtailing and wicket-taking options. Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and R Ashwin were among the wickets in IPL 2010 and will be expected to play a major role in the Champions League.

South African pitches are also likely to assist pace, and facing the likes of Dale Steyn and Shaun Tait will be a huge challenge. On average, the performance of pace and spin bowlers in Champions League 2009 and IPL 2009 was much better than in IPL 2008 and 2010, which were played on the more batsman-friendly Indian tracks.

Mumbai Indians had an excellent IPL 2010 after a poor display in 2009. Apart from Sachin Tendulkar, who was easily their best batsman in 2010, Mumbai also have JP Duminy and Kieron Pollard, who were among the top scorers in the last edition of the Champions League. Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa were the most consistent batsmen for Royal Challengers in IPL 2010, and Kallis' experience in home conditions will be a huge bonus. For Chennai Super Kings the batting fortunes revolve around Suresh Raina and Murali Vijay. Mahela Jayawardene was in superb form in the IPL scoring more than 400 runs including a century and will lead Wayamba's batting in the Champions League.

Anil Kumble and Dale Steyn provide the bowling variety and quality for Bangalore, but Mumbai probably have the edge in this department among the Indian teams, thanks to the presence of Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga and Harbhajan Singh. Dirk Nannes, who is the leading wicket-taker in the IPL with 79, leads Victoria's attack while Shaun Tait spearheads the attack for South Australia. The stats for the top bowlers in IPL 2010 are summarised below.

The Champions League matches will be held in Johannesburg, Centurion, Durban and Port Elizabeth. Johannesburg and Durban have hosted the majority of Twenty20 international games played in South Africa, and both provide a good deal of support for bowlers. Centurion and Port Elizabeth hosted a few IPL 2009 games and have proved to be the best venues for batsmen, though the run rate was less than eight per over in each of these venues during that tournament.