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Cricket’s first ever international club tournament – Champions League Twenty20 – will start on October 8, 2009 with a high voltage match between local favourites Royal Challengers and South African Cape Cobras.

 

The Cobras will have the likes of JP Duminy and Herschelle Gibbs, though they will miss their captain Graeme Smith, who has withdrawn from the tournament due to an injury.

 

The Cobras will also have to quickly adjust to the local conditions and a strong home support. The South African club, however, would be happy with their performance in the two warm-up matches which they won convincingly.

 

The Challengers spearheaded by Anil Kumble will look to carry forward their impressive performace in the IPL II, where they were the finalists.

 

The Challengers would also like to cash in on the Cobra batsmen’s unease against slower bowlers and skipper Kumble would certainly look to exploit their weakness against spin.

 

Gibbs and Duminy are the only two batsmen who are at home against spin, and they would have to share much of the batting workload.

Duminy had an excellent IPL playing for Mumbai Indians, notching five half-centuries and scored 373.

 

Gibbs, too, had a stupendous tournament, where he slammed four 50s, including one in the final, to take Deccan Chargers to their maiden IPL win.

 

Match facts:

 

Thursday, October 08, 2009 (day/night)

 

Start time 20.00 local, 14.30 GMT

 

 

Team highlights:

 

Royal Challengers:

 

This team from Group C definately be the crowds favourite. Earlier ridiculed as the test team the side gained popularity as soon as they started their winning streak in the IPL season 2 under the determined captainship of Anil Kumble.

 

Team Highlight: Runners up in the IPL season 2.

 

Likely playing XI:

 

RE van der Merwe
Robin Uthappa
Ross Taylor
Dale Steyn
Manish Pandey
Anil Kumble (C)
Praveen Kumar
Mark Boucher
Rahul Dravid
Jacques Kallis
Virat Kohli

 

Player likely to sit on bench:

 

Rajesh Bishnoi, Vinay Kumar, B Kumar, Balachandra Akhil

 

Cape Cobra:

 

This is another team that raises alarming bells. The Cape Cobras have an interesting profile and good combination of batsmen, bowlers and all rounders. Herschelle Gibbs, JP Duminy re-inforce the side with thier talent and experience. Graeme Smith was to lead the side but is unfortunately missing from the action.

 

Team highlight: Champions of The standard Pro20 South Africa.

 

Likely Playing XI:

 

Monde Zondeki
A Puttick (C)
Vernon Philander
Justin Ontong
Richard Levi
Charl Langeveldt
Ryan Canning
Henry Davids
Jean-Paul Duminy
Herschelle Gibbs
Claude Henderson

 

Likely to sit out:

Derek Brand, Francois Plaatjies, Rory Kleinveldt, S Engelbrecht

 

Author: Mona Gupta, New Delhi

 

 

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