By Suneer Chowdhary
When Rajasthan Royals play Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 55th IPL game this season, all eyes would be on the nature of the pitch, followed, in all probability by the blazing bat of Chris Gayle.
Published: May 10, 2011, 06:14 PM (IST)
Edited: May 10, 2011, 06:14 PM (IST)
Rajasthan Royals will be happy to get back to the middle pitch at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur. © AFP
By Suneer Chowdhary
Jaipur: May 10, 2011
When Rajasthan Royals play Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 55th IPL game this season, all eyes would be on the nature of the pitch, followed, in all probability by the blazing bat of Chris Gayle. Amidst all that, the context of the game is set by the fact that the Royals are in a near must-win category – a loss here and they would be staring down the wrong end of the barrel.
The touch of controversy was added after the game between Rajasthan and Mumbai where Shane Warne had alleged that Mumbai Indians shouldn’t have complained about the slowness of the pitch. The prerogative was the home team’s, he claimed. Mumbai Indians, on their part, denied that they had complained.
Where the flames were further fanned was in the previous game between Rajasthan and Chennai, when it was instructed to the Royals to play on a quicker than usual track at the side of square. The Royals have found the pitch in the middle to be the visiting team-nemesis, but on that new track, Chennai piled a near-200 and Rajasthan were beaten hollow.
An agitated Warne cried foul at the press conference, claiming it to be wrong for a team to be asked to prepare the home tracks in a particular manner. According to the buzz, this game will be played on the middle pitch, which implies that there could be a lot lesser bounce or pace and lot more help for the slower bowlers.
The ramifications of this could affect those Chris Gayle-fans who would have been hoping for an encore from his bat. Single-handedly, Gayle has turned the fortunes of a flailing side around and provided the side a will to look eye to eye with most of their opponents. That was clearly not the case before Gayle’s arrival.
However, it will not be about Gayle alone. Along the way, Virat Kohli has done his bit, as has AB de Villiers while the only batsman who has actually been below-par is Tillakaratne Dilshan. It could well be Dilshan’s last game before he leaves for the tour of England and how he would love to create an impression.
Johan Botha will be a key to his side’s success. While his batting has fallen away a tad in the last few games after a very promising start, the sense that one gets is that he may be expected to open the bowling. Warne would remember that it was Botha who had snapped up Gayle in the World Cup encounter at Delhi, on a track not too dissimilar from most Jaipur wickets.
Teams:
RR (Probable): Shane Watson, Rahul Dravid, Johan Botha, Ross Taylor, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Menaria, Abhishek Raut, Dishant Yagnik (wk), Shane Warne (c), Amit Singh, Sidharth Trivedi.
RCB (Probable): Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers (wk), Mohammad Kaif, Saurabh Tiwary, Asad Pathan, Daniel Vettori (c), Zaheer Khan, Sreenath Aravind, Abhimanyu Mithun.
Time: 20.00 local (10.30 GMT)
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here: @suneerchowdhary)
