The Royal Challengers will play the Chennai Super Kings in their second meeting of the tournament, in a game that will be played at the Chepauk in Chennai. Bangalore had easily won their first meeting.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (8/11 at Ladbrokes to win the game) were on a roll before their four successive wins were cut short by the Delhi Daredevils. And despite going into the game as favourites, there are two factors that will hinder their progress; one, the break between their last game and this match, and secondly, they will play the game away from home, where the strategies may need to change. Until now, they had relied on their pace quartet to deliver the goods, but whether the same will be possible on a more spinner-friendly wicket like Chepauk remains to be seen. Chennai are at 6/5 (Sky Bet) to win the game.

MS Dhoni (4/1 at Stan James to be the best batsman for Chennai) will sincerely hope that Matthew Hayden (5/2 at Sky Bet to top-score for his side) delivers what he promised, but more importantly, he will hope, for his own, and the team’s sake that S. Badrinath (8/1 at Ladbrokes to top-score for Chennai) can improve his running between the wickets. Badrinath has been involved in a couple of skirmishes while running and will need to be careful from the next game.

One gets the sense that given the way Chennai hasn’t been able to apply the necessary pressure when required, Dhoni may be padding up to go up the order, at numbers three or four. A big innings, therefore, expected out of him!

Despite the breaking of momentum, Bangalore will obviously have relished the break after playing games every alternate day. This would have afforded Jacques Kallis (2/1 at Ladbrokes to top-score for his side) some time off before getting back to his hungry-self, and also given the likes of Manish Pandey (4/1 at Sky Bet) and Robin Uthappa (9/2 at Stan James, both to top-score for their side) some time to think about their exclusions from the Indian team.

However, the bigger news would be the landing of Kevin Pietersen (4/1 at Sky Bet) in the country for the tournament. Whether or not he will play depends on the team composition, but with Eoin Morgan struggling to adjust to these pitches, Pietersen looks to be a certainty.

Tips:
Favourites: Chennai Super Kings (6/5 at Sky Bet)
Top Chennai batsman: MS Dhoni (4/1 at Stan James)
Top Bangalore batsman: Manish Pandey (4/1 at Sky Bet)