Bangalore look to breach Rajasthan's fortress

A star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore will be eyeing revenge and continue their winning streak when they take on formidable-at-home Rajasthan Royals in an IPL match in Jaipur on Monday.

The visitors have the arsenal to turn the tables on the hosts who would be weary after the last-over loss to Chennai Super Kings in the away match.

Bangalore, beaten by Rajasthan in their home game by 59 runs, have been an improved lot thereafter. With West Indian Chris Gayle in cracking form, the visitors have reached Jaipur with fine victories over Pune Warriors and Kings XI Punjab in their previous two matches.

Chris Gayle has been in devastating form, but he needs support from the other end. Pic/AFP

They have a strong line-up but poor form of Virat Kohli, remains a matter of concern. He has done little of note except for a 54-run knock against Chennai Super Kings.

The batting revolves around Gayle and the opponents try to get him out early but he has continued to clout the bowlers all over the park.

His previous two innings of 87 against Kings XI and 84 against Pune Warriors powered his team to facile victories.

The rest of the batting has hard-hitting South African A B De Villiers, Saurabh Tiwary, Mayank Agrawal and Daniel Vettori apart from Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan who has not been kept out after his initial failure.

The bowling -- spearheaded by veteran Muttiah Muralitharan and Zaheer Khan -- is a balanced line-up with Vinay Kumar, Vettori, Andrew McDonald and H V Patel capable of lending good support.

The hosts, on the other hand, do not have big names but the team is well-balanced. The only centurion in this edition of IPL so far, orange cap holder Ajinkya Rahane, and the daring Owais Shah have clicked often and the support from the likes of Ashok Menaria, skipper Rahul Dravid, Brad Hodge and Kevin Cooper has been good.

Ajinkya Rahane (above) and Owais Shah have been the lynchpins for Rajasthan Royals. Pic/AFPu00a0

The bowling department has relied on the medium pace of Siddhartha Trivedi and Amit Singh while Australian speedster Shaun Tait is yet to get an opportunity to play.

Rajasthan gambled with Stuart Binny against Chennai but he was dispatched for 20 runs in two overs. The bowling worries for the hosts have compounded and they might go for Sahun Tait tomorrow. Rajasthan suffered a last-ball defeat against Chennai Super Kings and that also exposed the ageing fielders who conceded twos where young legs could have prevented an extra run.

The fact that they are back on home turf and know the conditions well might help them but they will have to fight tooth and nail to prevail over the Royal Challengers who are preparing for revenge.

Despite all this, Rajasthan Royals are second on the table with eight points from seven matches while the visitors are at seventh but they have played a match less and a win here may change the position.

Teams (From):

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Daniel Vettori (c), Mayank Agarwal, KP Appanna, Sreenath Aravind, Arun Karthik, Raju Bhatkal, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Muralidharen Gautam, Chris Gayle, Mohammad Kaif, Abrar Kazi, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Charl Langeveldt, Andrew McDonald, Abhimanyu Mithun, Muttiah Muralitharan, Karun Nair, Dirk Nannes, Ryan Ninan, Harshal Patel, Asad Pathan, Luke Pomersbach, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rilee Rossouw, Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad, Saurabh Tiwary, Vinay Kumar, Vijay Zol.

Rajasthan Royals: Rahul Dravid (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Owais Shah, Ashok Menaria, Johan Botha, Kevon Cooper, Ankeet Chavan, Brad Hogg, Amit Singh, Siddharth Trivedi, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajit Chandalia, Amit Paunikar, Amit Singh, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Gajendra Singh, Pankaj Singh, Sreesanth, Samad Fallah, Stuart Binny, Sumit Narwal, Brad Hodge, Dinesh Chandimal and Paul Collingwood.
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