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Bangalore: Two teams that have shown the promise but failed to deliver on big occasions come face to face when Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore clash in their opening match of the Indian Premier League on Thursday.
The Mumbai Indians are the big-spending side and have the Champions League Twenty20 Trophy to show for all the money shelled out on acquiring star players. Besides, Mumbai have also been runners-up once and semifinalists twice in the previous IPL seasons.
With Ricky Ponting as captain this time, Mumbai would be hoping to lay their hands on the IPL trophy for the first time.
In the batting department, Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma would be looking to continue from where he left in the previous IPL where they amassed 333 and 433 runs respectively.
Senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar would open with either Dwayne Smith or James Franklin, both of whom can contribute to the team with their bowling as well.
Dinesh Karthik would give solidity to the middle-order. Boasting of three prolific wicket-takers in the IPL so far -- Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga, Pragyan Ojha and Munaf Patel -- Mumbai Indians look a well-balanced side.
However, spinners were a tad disappointing for them in IPL-5 with Harbhajan Singh hardly making any impact. He scalped six wickets in 17 matches, while Ojha claimed nine wickets in as many matches.
Royal Challengers Bangalore, on the other hand, will take the field with the young and feisty Virat Kohli leading the team.
Known for being diffident in the initial stages of the IPL, RCB have, in their arsenal, swashbuckling characters like Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers, who can turn the game on its head in a jiffy.
Kohli is not too far behind having been RCB's leading run-getter (1639), but their over-dependence on Gayle has been a nightmare for the team.
The West Indian, with 1341 runs, has won countless games single-handedly, but still has to come up good in big matches.
RCB's main worry is their bowling with Zaheer Khan making a comeback from a calf injury which he sustained in a Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat last year.
Abhimanyu Mithun and R Vinay will be waiting to give better performance.
Caribbean speedster Ravi Rampaul along with senior pros like Muttiah Muralitharan, Daniel Vettori and Murali Karthik, are expected to bolster RCB attack.
Teams from
Mumbai Indians: Ricky Ponting (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Akshar Patel, Aditya Tare (wk), Aiden Blizzard, Ambati Rayudu, Amitoze Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Dwayne Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Harbhajan Singh, Jacob Oram, Jalaj Saxena, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson, Munaf Patel, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Phil Hughes, Pawan Suyal, Pragyan Ojha, Rishi Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (captain), AB De Villiers (wk), Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Andrew McDonald, Arun Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Chris Gayle, Christopher Barnwell, Daniel Christian, Daniel Vettori, Harshal Patel, Jaidev Unadkat, KP Appanna, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Moises Henriques, Murali Kartik, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pankaj Singh, Prasanth Parameswaran, Vinay Kumar, Ravi Rampaul, RP Singh, S Aravind, Sandeep Warrier, Saurabh Tiwary, Sheldon Jackson, Sunny Sohal, Syed Mohammad, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Vijay Zol, Zaheer Khan.
Match facts
Thursday April 4, 2013 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (1430 GMT)
