Heavyweights battle for pole position (Preview)

If one goes through squads of all ten team competing in IPL, 2011, Bangalore and Mumbai will make the cut as two of the most balanced sides in the competition. If you are looking for world class players, both sides have many of them. If you want to know which teams have got the depth in all three departments of the game, name of Bangalore and Mumbai will prop up first.

Both teams boast of some destructive batsmen of the format and have two of the better bowling units that can rattle best of the batting units in the tournament.

Packed with the modern greats, Daniel Vettori led Bangalore and Sachin Tendulkar led Mumbai will battle it out at Chinaswammy Stadium, former’s home ground what is billed to be high voltage encounter given the composition of both teams.

What makes Tuesday’s battle a riveting one is the fact that both teams match each other man to man as there is nothing to choose between the two sides

If Mumbai have Lasith Malinga to pick up wickets, Bangalore’s Zaheer Khan wouldn’t like to be left behind in the race and would make sure he matches Malinga in wicket taking ability. While Mumbai have Munaf Patel to give them control, it will be Australian Dirk Nannes’s left arm angle and pace that Bangalore would hope to provide them breakthroughs with the new ball.

In spin department it would be captain Vettori to slow the things down once powerplay overs are over, Mumbai off spinner Harbhajan will look to do same with the new ball and in the death overs.

It will be battle between two captains who, both are good students of the game and would like to outfox each other by throwing some surprises on Tuesday.

Mumbai batting have plenty of game changers in their batting line-up so have Bangalore.  It is the master blaster Sachin himself who mans the batting effort opening the batting followed by some terrific hitters of a cricket ball in Kieran Pollard, Andrew Symonds who missed the first game due to an injury should be back in the playing eleven and will have a support act in the shape of Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu.

In Tilkeratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers, Bangalore have two of the best in the format and will have services of Indian batting sensation Virat Kohli and left hander Saurabh Tiwary to put big scores on the board.

In both camps are some unknown local Indian players who, it appears, are destined to make a name for themselves as many of them have in previous seasons.

Both go into this crucial game with a win each under their belt and will be high on confidence. It was Lasith Malinga toe-crushing yorkers that handed Mumbai an easy win against Delhi while AB de Villiers played a matured innings to help his side to defeat Kochi in a close fought encounter.

Bangalore hold a slight edge over Mumbai on Tuesday as former will have home crowd to cheer them up and known conditions to play in.

Bangalore

Players who can make impact…

Daniel Vettori…Being a captain he will be extra pumped to lead from the front as Vettori has shown in the past while in charge of his national team, New Zealand. His left arm spin bowling will be crucial against quality batting line-up Mumbai have. He will have to take wickets and stem the run flow if he wants to prevent Mumbai from posting.

Tilkeratne Dilshan…This dashing opener from Sri Lanka has only one thing in mind see the ball and hit. He is Sehwag version of batting and will have his countryman Malinga to confront with. The mini-duel between the two will be one of the fascinating battles in the bigger picture. He will come hard from the word go and Bangalore would hope that their trump card comes to the party.

SQUAD

AB de Villiers, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abrar Kazi, Arun Karthik, Asad Pathan, BN Bharath, Charl Langeveldt, Cheteshwar Pujara,Daniel Vettori (c), Dirk Nannes, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, Luke Pomersbach, Mayank Agarwal, Mohammad Kaif,Muralidharen Gautam, Nuwan Pradeep, Raju Bhatkal, Rilee Rossouw, Ryan Ninan, Saurabh Tiwary, Sreenath Aravind,Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan

Mumbai

Players who can make impact…

Sachin Tendulkar…The little master showed his intention in the game against Delhi by anchoring the run chase rather than going for the attack. By the look of things, Sachin has decided to hold one end up and others are going to go for it. With more than one marauder in the team, Sachin will look to bring calm and stability to the proceedings.

Harbhajan Singh…Ace Indian off-spinner might not be amongst wickets lately but batsmen haven’t been able to get him away either. He opens the bowling for Mumbai and comes back in death overs to put lid on scoring rate. His wicket taking and lugging scoring rate form will have an impact on the crucial game

SQUAD

Abu Nechim , Aditya Tare (wk), Aiden Blizzard, Ali Murtaza,  Ambati Rayudu, Andrew Symonds, Davy Jacobs, Dhawal Kulkarni,Harbhajan Singh, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Moises Henriques, Munaf Patel, Pawan Suyal, Rajagopal Sathish, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar (c), Santosh Yadav, Sarul Kanwar, Tirumalsetti Suman, Yuzvendra Chahal