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Mumbai: Buoyed by their sensational last-ball victory over Chennai Super Kings, a keyed up Mumbai Indians take on strong challengers Royal Challengers Bangalore in a crucial Indian Premier League game on Wednesday.
While Mumbai have garnered 14 points from 11 matches, RCB are trailing them by three points, having played the same number of games ahead of the high-octane first leg clash.
If MI stopped the Super Kings in their tracks when new recruit Dwayne Smith smashed Ben Hilfenhaus for a six and two fours off the last three balls, RCB were no less impressive in pulling off a thrilling victory over Deccan Chargers.
AB de Villiers' 17-ball unbeaten 47 swung the game RCB's way and he, along with another in-form batsman Chris Gayle, is a major threat to Mumbai's hopes of pulling off their fourth straight victory.
A victory for MI would boost the points tally to 16 with four games left and would help them draw level with Delhi Daredevils, albeit with one game less in hand.
A setback for last year's runners-up RCB would put them under the same sort of difficulties that are being faced by two-time holders Super Kings after their defeat to Mumbai Indians.
In batting RCB have been well-served by left-handed West Indian powerhouse Gayle (433 runs from 10 games) at the top, and classy right-handed South African de Villiers (292 from 11 games) - who can switch-hit powerfully to spoil the spinners' plans - in the middle.
These two batsmen, averaging 48-plus, have shouldered the responsibility of propping up the Bangalore batting admirably in which another key member - India star Virat Kohli - has, unfortunately, not lived up to the high expectations.
Tillakaratne Dilshan has settled in the top order well and RCB would be depending a lot on this overseas trio and Kohli in batting against the varied Mumbai attack, spearheaded by speedster Lasith Malinga.
In bowling, RCB have Zaheer Khan and R Vinay Kumar as the leading wicket-takers. RCB skipper Daniel Vettori (5 wickets from 9 games) has struggled to take wickets.
With two wins and as many losses along with a split points verdict against Super Kings in their last five games, RCB seem to have got their campaign back on track and a victory over MI would improve their qualifying hopes.
Their rivals MI are on a roll as they have beaten Deccan Chargers at home, Pune Warriors (away) and the Super Kings in their backyard in successive games.
What was most heartening for MI was Tendulkar regaining his touch against the Super Kings. He played a superb innings of 74 in 44 balls.
Malinga, who has emerged as the leading wicket taker in the competition after the game against Super Kings, is the major threat for the Bangalore batsmen with his ability to bowl effectively as first or second change and at the death by using his inch-perfect yorkers.
Teams from
Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Abu Nechim, Amitoze Singh, Aiden Blizzard, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Yogesh Chahal, Clint McKay, Herschelle Gibbs, Davy Jacobs (wk), Richard Levi, Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Dhawal Kulkarni, K Yadav, Lasith Malinga, Sushant Marathe, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel, Robin Peterson, Sujit Nayak, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jaydev Shah, Rudra Pratap Singh, T Suman, Pawan Suyal, Aditya Tare, Apporva Wankhede.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Daniel Vettori (captain), Mayank Agarwal, KP Appanna, Prashanth Parameswaran, Arun Karthik, Raju Bhatkal, AB de Villiers (wk), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Mohammad Kaif, Abrar Kazi, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Charl Langeveldt, Andrew McDonald, Abhimanyu Mithun, Muttiah Muralitharan, Karun Nair, Dirk Nannes, M Gautam, Ryan Ninan, Asad Pathan, Luke Pomerscback, Harshal Patel, Asad Pathan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rilee Rossouw, Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad, S Thiyagarajan, Saurabh Tiwary, R Vinay Kumar, Vijay Zol.
Stats and trivia
Match facts
Wednesday May 9, 2012 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (14:30 GMT)
