| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
Bangalore: It's a must-win situation for both RCB and New Zealand side Otago Volts as they face off at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday night.
Having lost a match each to Cape Cobras, only the winner of this final Group C clash will go through to the next round. The losers can go back, try and top their respective leagues again next year and make a comeback to the Champions League.
For hosts RCB, the inability to defend a total of 180 in their opener would have come as a rude shock.
Perhaps it calls for strengthening the bowling, which should straightaway mean the inclusion of Dale Steyn, one of the quickest bowlers in the world. But thanks to the rule that restricts a team from playing more than four foreigners, it is not that straightforward a decision.
To get Steyn in, one of Jacques Kallis or Roelf van der Merwe, who seems to have recovered well from the freak head injury he sustained at Saturday's practice, will have to be left out. But skipper Anil Kumble has a lot of faith in Merwe's left-arm spin, his hard-hitting and his electric fielding.
As for Kallis, he had his moments in IPL 2 and with his ability to bat and bowl at the top and is not an easy choice to leave out either. Unless of course, the team management takes into consideration that on Indian pitches, his bowling has been more of a liability.
Bringing in young all-rounder Bhuvneshwar Kumar for Kallis and getting Steyn in for one of the Indian fast bowlers, Praveen Kumar or Vinay Kumar must be on top of the minds of the think-tank. Seeing that they play the second match of the evening, Kumble said: "We can wait and see how the pitch behaves during the first match and then decide our combination."
The other option is to attempt what they initially went with in South Africa and have Robin Uthappa as the wicketkeeper, with Mark Boucher then making way for Steyn. As it is RCB bat deep enough, so the risk of leaving out Boucher despite his ability to turn matches around with the bat, is one worth taking.
For the Kiwi side, which took even more of a pasting from the Cobras, a lot rides on the McCullum brothers, Brendon and Nathan. Bangaloreans are well aware of what Brendon can do, having witnessed his big hundred in the inaugural game of the IPL 1 in April 2008, and should he even be able to achieve half he did that night, his side would have been well-served.
Both teams are also aware that some clouds have been hovering around for the last two nights and will be hoping that they get to decide the qualifier on the field of play rather than through any sort of calculations
Team from:
Royal Challengers: Anil Kumble (C), Balachandra Akhil, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey, Mark Boucher (WK), Praveen Kumar, Rahul Dravid, Rajesh Bishnoi, Robin Uthappa (WK), Roelof van der Merwe, Ross Taylor, Vinay Kumar, Virat Kohli
Otago Volts: Aaron Redmond, Brendon McCullum (WK), Craig Cumming (C), Derek de Boorder, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Greg Todd, Hamish Rutherford, Ian Butler, James McMillan, Matt Harvie, Nathan McCullum, Neil Broom, Neil Wagner, Nick Beard, Warren McSkimming
Match fact
Monday October 12, 2009 (day/night)
Start time: 20:00 local, 14:30 GMT
