RCB and King XI Search First Win at Chinnaswamy

Bangalore: Smarting from their seven-wicket loss to Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore will be determined to redeem their pride in front of home fans when they take on Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.

As RCB skipper Anil Kumble admitted, their performance at the Eden Gardens was below par in all departments of the game.

Their batting was unimpressive as they huffed and puffed to a niggardly 135. Their bowling came apart at the seam as Manoj Tiwary tore into their attack like a hurricane.

To add to their brimming on-field woes, RCB fielding was shoddy, highlighted by Sreevats Goswami's blundering glove work. If RCB want to raise the performance bar as they had belatedly done in South Africa last season, they have to get their act together quickly before their hopes of making it to the semifinals is blown away at the very start of competition.

Except Jacques Kallis, who resolutely batted through the 20-over innings, the rest of the RCB batters came a cropper. Much was expected of Goswami, Virat Kohli and Manish Pandey, but the talented triumvirate fell to impetuous strokes.

Unless these youngsters and English-import Eoin Morgan, who would be eager to stabilise his place before Ross Taylor arrives, provide the thrust at the top, it will be difficult for RCB to overcome Kings XI Punjab's robust challenge.

Team news

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Bangalore's ploy of opening with Sreevats Goswami didn't work, and he had a horror time behind the stumps, which could result in Mark Boucher being picked. If they make that change, Steyn could be the one to sit out, with one of Vinay Kumar or Abhimanyu Mithun included instead.

Squad (from): A Kumble (capt), B Akhil, KP Appanna, MV Boucher (wk0, R Dravid, D du Preez, SP Goswami (wk), JH Kallis, V Kohli, B Kumar, P Kumar, A Mithun, EJG Morgan, MK Pandey, KP Pietersen, SPD Smith, S Sriram, DW Steyn, LRPL Taylor, RV Uthappa, RE van der Merwe, R Vinay Kumar, CL White

Kings XI Punjab: With Piyush Chawla being Punjab's first-choice spinner and Yuvraj likely to chip in with his left-armers, Ramesh Powar's place could come under the scanner. Mohammad Kaif also had a poor game, and Punjab might look to replace him as well.

Squad (from): KC Sangakkara (capt & wk), YA Abdulla, L Ablish, Amanpreet Singh, AB Barath, Bipul Sharma, MS Bisla (wk), RS Bopara, PP Chawla, K Goel, JR Hopes, DPMD Jayawardene, M Kaif, B Lee, VS Malik, SE Marsh, IK Pathan, RR Powar, RS Sodhi, S Sreesanth, SJ Srivastava, TM Srivastava, J Theron, Yuvraj Singh 
 
Stats and trivia

• Irfan is the second highest wicket-taker in the IPL, with 33 scalps.
• Punjab strolled to two comprehensive wins in the first season - by nine wickets at home, and six wickets at the Chinnaswamy.
• The teams split the matches last year - Bopara powering Punjab to a seven-wicket victory in Durban, before Bangalore scraped home by 8 runs at the same venue.
• Piyush Chalwa has the unwanted record of having made the most ducks in the IPL - five

Match facts
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Start time 16:00 local (10:30 GMT)