Upbeat Bangalore Face Mumbai Indians

Dubai: After registering a thumping eight-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils in their opener, Royal Challengers Bangalore face Mumbai Indians, who are yet to fully recover from the 41-run hammering they got from Kolkata Knight Riders in the tournament opener.

RCB, who failed to make the playoffs previous season are trusting heavily on their batting to get them through this time around. Defending champions Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, started on the wrong foot and they'll hope to keep the camaraderie in the team intact.

Bangalore Royal Challengers have the batting line up to die for this season is a known fact, but what was most impressive about their performance in their win over Daredevils was the bowling. The new-ball bowlers Mitchell Starc and Albie Morkel got the ball to bounce and move off the deck while Varun Aaron showed why he is still one of the best fast bowling talents of India.

RCB also seem to have found a good spin bowling talent in Yuzvendra Chahal. With the bat, Virat Kohli looked at his best with a calm knock in the chase and Yuvraj Singh found much-needed form at the start of the tournament with a crisp 29-ball unbeaten 52. With AB de Villiers yet to bat, and the possibility of Chris Gayle returning, RCB have a good chance of making it two wins in two games.

Yuzvendra Chahal bowled brilliantly within his limitations and was handful against Daredevils and it will be interesting to see how he shapes up against Mumbai Indians. He was economical in his four overs, giving away just 18 runs and clean bowling Murali Vijay with a beauty of a legbreak.

On otherhand, MI, the title holders looked jaded after their loss to Kolkata. Chasing a stiff target of 164, the top order struggled to get a move on and perhaps Rohit Sharma may want to make some change right at the top or push hiimself up to number three spot.

Mumbai Indians' bowling, apart from Lasith Malinga, did not look threatening enough and that's where Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha will have to step up.

Michael Hussey is expected to play a big role right at the top of the order, but he will have to guard against getting into a shell early in his innings. Last season's highest run getter will be itching to get going this time around and lead by example.

Teams from

Bangalore: Nic Maddinson, Parthiv Patel (wk), Virat Kohli (Capt.), Yuvraj Singh, AB de Villiers, Sachin Rana, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Varun Aaron, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Vijay Zol, Abu Nechim, Chris Gayle, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Tanmay Mishra, Yogesh Takawale

Mumbai: Michael Hussey, Aditya Tare, Rohit Sharma (Capt.), Ambati Rayudu, Corey Anderson, Kieron Pollard, Chidhambaram Gautam (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Josh Hazlewood, Sushant Marathe, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Jalaj Saxena, Apoorv Wankhade, Marchant de Lange, Krishmar Santokie, Ben Dunk, Pawan Suyal

Stats and trivia

• Mumbai have had the better of Bangalore in seven times in 13 encounters.
• Ambati Rayudu is the leading run-getter for Mumbai against Bangalore. In 11 games he has 298 runs with two fifties. Chris Gayle has 292 runs against Mumbai in six games at an average of 73 and a strike rate of 143.13.

Match facts
Saturday April 19, 2014
Start time 1430 (1030 GMT, 1600 IST)