Match Preview: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians

Ground Reality and pitch: Situated south of Sandton in Illovo, Wanderers nicknamed 'The Bullring' is the home of the Highveld Lions. This ground goes down in history as hosting one of the greatest ODI matches when South Africa chased down a colossal target of 434 runs set by Australia. Wanderers posts a hard wicket providing assistance to the seamers. The bounce is also favoured by the batsmen because the ball comes on to the bat quicker enabling better strokes.

Humidity: 88% | Chances of Rain: Showers expected

Team Updates:

Bangalore: Gradually finding its feet in the Indian Premier League, Royal Challengers Bangalore will aim to spring another surprise when it takes on the in-form Mumbai Indians for the first time in the tournament's second edition. Back to back wins over Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab in the last two matches has not just lifted the Royal Challengers' spirit but has also helped the team rise from the bottom to fifth in the points table. The side's regular skipper USD 1.55 million buy, Kevin Pietersen, has left for national duty after leading it to the win over Knight Riders but it didn't seem to have affected the side much the other night when it stunned fourth-placed Punjab.

Mumbai: The Mumbai team is in good form. After the narrow defeat against Kings XI, the Sachin Tendulkar-led outfit bounced back to beat the struggling Knight Riders. The team is currently third on the points table with three wins from six matches, one of which was washed out. J P Duminy, who was subdued in the early part of the tournament, is now also among the runs after notching two half centuries in as many matches against Punjab and Kolkata. Mumbai's explosive batting gives it a slight edge over Royal Challengers.
Contest to watch:

Tendulkar vs. Kumble: One is a master batsman while the other is a wily craftsman in the art of spin bowling. The old war horses of Indian cricket would face-off at the 'Bullring' much to the delight of the cricket fans around the world.

Numbers game:
11: The number of wickets taken by Lasit Malinga in the IPL 2009
7: The number of catches taken by Virat Kohli in this edition of IPL
8.50: Jesse Ryder's batting average in the IPL 2009
About whom did Fred Trueman say this: "I sometimes used to wonder, in his playing days, if he realised just how great a bowler he was. When he was really spinning the ball, you could actually hear the fingers click as he delivered. He really was a prodigious finger spinner". Answer and win KF Airtickets

Teams:

Mumbai Indians (From): Sachin Tendulkar(c), Sanath Jayasuriya, Ajinkya Rahane, Jean-Paul Duminy, Abhishek Nayar, Graham Napier, Saurabh Tiwary, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Pinal Shah(w), Lasith Malinga, Rohan Raje, Dwayne Bravo, Shikhar Dhawan, Chetanya Nanda, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dilhara Fernando, Jaydev Shah, Kyle Mills, Luke Ronchi, Mohammad Ashraful, Rahil Shaikh, Ryan McLaren, Yogesh Takawale

Bangalore Royal Challengers (From): Jesse Ryder, Shreevats Goswami, Jacques Kallis, Rajesh Bishnoi, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Mark Boucher(w), Roelof van der Merwe, Praveen Kumar, Anil Kumble(c), KP Appanna, Balachandra Akhil, Vinay Kumar, Dale Steyn, Abhmanyu Mithun, Bharat Chipli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cameron White, Devraj Patil, Dillon du Preez, Gaurav Dhiman, Ishank Jaggi, Jagadeesh Arunkumar, Jitendra Patil, Karan Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Muralidharen Gautam, Nathan Bracken, Pankaj Singh, Raju Bhatkal, Rohit Sabharwal, Ross Taylor, Saurabh Bandekar, Sreenath Aravind, Sunil Joshi, Tinu Yohannan, Udit Patel, Wasim Jaffer