Last year’s runner-up Chennai Super Kings will play the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the fifth match of the DLF IPL on the third day of the tournament.

Chennai looked out of sorts in their first encounter against Mumbai and lost, where as Bangalore routed the defending champs, Rajasthan Royals in their first match. Royals had crashed to 58 all out, thus achieving the lowest ever total of the Indian Premier League.

Despite that, the Super Kings will go into the match as favourites; Stan James offers 5/6 about a Chennai Super Kings win, where as Sky Bet offers 5/4 about a BRC triumph. However, Super Kings will need to play out of their skins to get back to their winning ways; and with a more thoughtful team selection. For some strange reason, Murali Vijay and L. Balaji, both had failed to make it to the starting eleven, despite being more suited to this format of the game than, say, an S. Badrinath. Given Balaji’s uncanny knack of picking up wickets, he looks far better than 33/1 (Stan James) to end as the best bowler of the tournament. Amongst the most bowlers, Andrew Flintoff goes 7/2 (Stan James) as the most economical bowler of the match, but given his performance in the first match, there seems to be a possibility of some fitness concerns regarding him. Anil Kumble and Dale Steyn (both 4/1 at Stan James for most economical bowlers) look better options to bet on.

On the other hand, to me, the batsmen who bat at the top of the order may usually have an advantage of being able to bat through the innings and thus get become the highest scorer for the team, but on pitches like the ones at South Africa, it may not always be the case. The seam and swing goes off after the first six or seven overs in a day match, and continues to nip around when the team is batting under light, making it difficult for me to tip an opener to repeat what Tendulkar did in the match against CSK. My personal pick in that case would be someone like an M.S. Dhoni (6/1 Stan James) or an Albie Morkel (10/1 Ladbrokes), who did not feature in the first match because his kit hadn’t arrived to the stadium with him!

With the ghosts of the first season driven away for a while, the Bangalore Royal Challengers will be slightly more relaxed than earlier. Rahul Dravid’s fifty had shown what a guiding and a matured inning could do to the team’s cause, where as the initial burst from Praveen Kumar and Dale Steyn underlined the fact that it was a bowling-friendly wicket. The Port Elizabeth ground – where this encounter will be played – cannot be termed as filled with runs despite the previous ODI in which South Africa piled on more than 300 in their stipulated fifty overs. The only T20 encounter had seen the hosts crash to 58 and West Indies make heavy weather of chasing it down. All of this point to the fact that it could be another encounter where the more technically sound Rahul Dravid (10/1 Stan James) could rule the roost again.

Somehow, I did not enjoy the Bangalore batting line-up, what with five of the top-six batsmen of the wham-slam-thank-you-ma’am mode, ensuring that it could work as a double-edged sword. Captain Pietersen (7/2 Ladbrokes) will be in South Africa till the end of the first week of May before embarking upon the tour to West Indies, and will love to make every dollar – all of $1.55m – spent on him count. He does look tailor-made for this format of the game and possesses the capability to bat right through the inning, but for that he needs to get a start.

Tips:
Team: Chennai Super Kings
Batsman: Kevin Pietersen
Economical Bowler: Anil Kumble