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The T20 Champions League moves on to the second group stage on Thursday and the opening game in this phase of the tournament sees Bangalore Royal Challengers take on Victoria on 15th of October (Thursday) in what could be an exciting game of the Champions League T20.

 

Bangalore qualified the hard way; they lost a thriller to Cape Cobras in their opening game but a convincing win over Otago saw them through. They once again have home advantage on a wicket where they have twice scored 180+. The Royal Challengers have only been forced to use 6 batsmen in the 2 matches so far with Kallis and Uthappa both amongst the runs at the top of the order and Dravid, Kohli and Ross Taylor holding things together towards the end of the innings.

 

Victoria effectively sealed their passage from Group D when they thrashed the Daredevils by 7 wickets in Delhi. Although they went down to Wayamba on Tuesday, their net run rate was sufficiently in credit to ensure they remained in the tournament.

Victoria’s games have been low scoring affairs but with the likes of Hodge, White, David Hussey and Mcdonald in the line up, they may well be suited to the conditions at Bangalore which have been easier for batsmen than those they have experienced in Delhi. The most expensive of the 5 main bowlers has gone for just 6 per over though those figures have been achieved on a low scoring ground.

 

Although Victoria were beaten on Tuesday their primary focus was on protecting their advantage in the net run rate. Royal Challengers have proved themselves with the bat and if the wicket behaves and conditions are fine, we could have a high scoring and hopefully exciting game.

 

Both teams have similar table standings and a good, formidable batting lineup. Both teams have played 2 matches each, won and lost 1 game each. However when it comes to Net Run Rate the Challengers (+1.839) have an edge over the Bushrangers (+0.136) and we know the NRR is an important factor in this format of cricket.

 

So far we’ve seen many close shaves already in the tournament but with a strong mindset in both teams and especially when the batsmen are in good form only time will tell how close this one will turn out to be. After all we can only imagine the artery level of a packed Bangalore crowd in a T20 match when the home team takes on such a strong rival.

 

 

Road to Second Round:

 

Royal Challengers Bangalore:

 

Oct 8, 2009:

 

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Cape Cobras at Bangalore
Cape Cobras won by 5 wickets (with 2 balls remaining)
Royal Challengers Bangalore 180/4 (20/20 ov); Cape Cobras 184/5 (19.4/20 ov)

 

Oct 12, 2009:

 

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Otago at Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 80 runs
Royal Challengers Bangalore 188/2 (20/20 ov); Otago 108 (17.5/20 ov)

 

 

Victoria:

 

Oct 9, 2009:

 

Delhi Daredevils v Victoria at Delhi
Victoria won by 7 wickets (with 20 balls remaining)
Delhi Daredevils 98/8 (20/20 ov); Victoria 100/3 (16.4/20 ov)

 

 

Oct 13, 2009:

 

Victoria v Wayamba at Delhi
Wayamba won by 15 runs
Wayamba 118/9 (20/20 ov); Victoria 103/4 (20/20 ov)

 

Author: Mona Gupta (New Delhi)

 

 

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