The Royal Challengers Bangalore takes on the Chennai Super Kings at Kingsmead in Durban, in a day game on Thursday. Bangalore (20/1 at Coral to win tournament) has ten points from eleven games, where as Chennai is sitting pretty with 13 points from ten.

However, given the effervescence exhibited in the change in rankings every match. A win for Chennai (5/2 at Stan James to win tournament) may not change much but for cementing their place in the knock-out, but if Bangalore do manage to put one across their opponents, this will be their second successive win at this business end of the tournament; ensuring that the Royal Challengers leapfrog into the top four.
 
Royal Challengers (11/8 at Stan James to win match) will go into the game with a lot of confidence after they chased more than 170 in their game against Kolkata. Ross Taylor (5/1 at Stan James to be top Bangalore batsman) was the definite star of the match – with a 33-ball 81 – but the question is whether he will be able to reproduce that magic. Mark Boucher (10/1 at Sky bet  to be top Bangalore batsman) was the other batsman who has continued to impress, and if he gets a chance to bat up the order, could do a lot of damage.
 
Rahul Dravid (6/1 at Paddy Power to be top Bangalore batsman), on the other hand, has been going through a lean patch ever since he came back from India; though, class players like him do not remain low for long. I will bet on him being the player to watch out for in the match. Despite Jesse Ryder’s off-field shenanigans, he was chosen in the team ahead of Reolf van der Merwe (16/1 at Bet365 to be top Bangalore batsman), but one gets the sense that van der merwe should be back and an all-rounder to look out for.
 
At the other side is Chennai (7/11 at Expekt.com), who have been in a tremendous run of form, winning almost all their matches after the initial setback. Mathew Hayden (7/17 at Betfair to be top scorer in the IPL) so ahead of the rest of the pack that he looks almost certain to win the purple cap; Ladbrokes offer 9/4 for him to be the top Chennai scorer in the match. Suresh Raina (4/1 at Ladbrokes to be top Chennai batsman) also is in great form, and it’s a tough choice choosing between the two as to who the top scorer will be.
 
M.S.Dhoni’s (11/2 at 888Sport to be top Chennai batsman) batting has come of age, and so has his captaincy, after a rather sluggish start in the tournament, where as Albie Morkel is looking at a promotion up the order with the bat. S. Badrinath (12/1 at Stan James to be top Chennai batsman) won the player of the match award in the last game, while Murali Vijay should continue to be preferred over Parthiv Patel, given his power-hitting to go with the sweet timing.
 
The bowling will be taken care of by M.Muralitharan (3/1 at Stan James to be most economic bowler), against whom, scoring of runs has been a struggle for most batsmen. His overall economy rate has been lesser than six runs per over, which can be boasted by very few in this format of the game. Morkel (9/2 at Stan James to be most economic bowler) also seems to have got into the rhythm needed as a quick bowler, where as L.Balaji has emerged as one of the more under-rated, but effective bowlers in the IPL. 
Tips:
Favourites: Chennai Super Kings (7/11 at Expekt.com)
Top Chennai batsman: Matthew Hayden (7/17 at Betfair)
Top Bangalore batsman: Rahul Dravid (6/1 at Paddy Power)
Most economic bowler: Muralitharan (3/1 at Stan James)