IPL 2009 - Bangalore Face Royal Challenge
by Juris Graney
ALL the signs in the IPL cricket betting in today’s match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (+135) and Chennai Super Kings (-175) points to the latter scoring an easy victory, however the Indian Premier League has thrown up more than its fair share of upset victories.
When the two met at the start of the tournament the smart money was on Bangalore (P11/W5/L6), who now sit in sixth spot to beat Chennai (P10/W6/L3), who are now in outright second.
Funnily enough, when they met in match five on April 20, it was Chennai who provided a shock win over Bangalore.
Chennai set Bangalore a healthy run chase of close to nine runs an over 5/179 with Matthew Hayden (65 off 35 balls) starring at the top of the order with Parthiv Patel (30), Suresh Raina (28) and Andrew Flintoff (22) all getting starts.
Bangalore suffered a hiccup when Praveen Kumar fell on the third ball however they regrouped and at 2/40 off five overs, look set for an early win in the tournament.
The wheels then well and truly fell off and they last their next eight wickets for 47 runs with Muttiah Muralidaran the chief destroyer taking 3/11 off four overs and Lakshmipathy Balaji’s 2/18 off 2.2 overs prevented Bangalore from rallying.
Considering their batting line up consisted of Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor, then captain Kevin Pietersen, Rahul Dravid and a tail that featured Dale Steyn and Anil Kumble, it was a lost opportunity for early competition points for Bangalore.
Bangalore have lost Pietersen but that has given way for Kiwi blaster Jesse Ryder to come into the team and his big hitting could prove vital however his form has been scratchy to say the least.
The chance of Bangalore now upsetting Chennai in match 44 of this tournament is slim.
Bangalore broke a two game losing streak when they beat perennial competition whipping boys, cricket lines point to a Chennai win.
