Royal Challengers Bangalore have been one of the most strongest contender of tournament. But, their continuous failure has made them look shaky now. Pune Warriors was considered the punchbag of the tournament. Yet, it has already defeated two semifinalists of 2012. Will RCB be the third big catch of Ganguly’s motivated men!!
History
They only played one match in 2011 edition. Driven by Gayle and Kohli force RCB emerged victorious by 26 runs. RCB scored 181/5 with 67 runs from Kohli, 49 from Gayle and 26 from AB de Villiers.
Thomas and Rahul Sharma grabbed 2-wickets each for Pune, while Taylor grabbed one.
Pune lost only 5 wickets, but managed 155 runs only. Ryder’s 34-ball 51 runs was the only saving grace. Yuvraj scored 41 runs, Uthappaa remained undefeated on 23 runs. Manish Pandey, Tim Paine and others could not increase the run rate. For RCB, Zaheer, Aravind, Vettori, Gayle and Syed grabbed a wicket each.
Overall IPL Record
Overall RCB RCB has more losses than wins, winning 32 and losing 34.
Pune Warriors have now earned 7 wins and lost 10.
- In their first IPL in 2011 Pune finished 9th with 4 wins and 9 losses.
In 2008, RCB finished second from the bottom winning 4 matches and Lost 10.
In 2009, RCB finished 2nd best registering 9 wins and 7 losses.
In 2010, RCB finished 3rd winning 8 and losing 8 games
In 2011, RCB reached the final winning 10 and losing 6.
2012 Record
Both have played 4 matches. While Warriors is just a win away from grabbing the top spot with 3 wins, RCB has won only one match.
Warriors have created two major upsets, while RCB has just one win against Daredevils to feel happy.
Who Will Win Today
With Gayle in the team RCB is always dangerous. Add to that the need to win, RCB looks intimidating. Batting is their strength and they will like to bat first to score at least 160 runs, if not 200-plus.
Interestingly, batting is not the strength of Pune Warriors. Their last match against CSK made them look like a good batting side. Still there is a lot of improvement required to score or chase a total beyond 160 runs even against a weak attack like of Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Agains, it will be Pune Warriors strong bowling attack that would need to make the match winnable for the batsmen.
The contest between Bowlers of Warriors and Batsmen of RCB can go either way, specially with Bangalore pitch assisting batsmen more. Yet, RR has shown how to contain Gayle, Kohli and AB de Villiers.
Pune has a better battery of bowlers. Dinda, Rahul Sharma and Murali Kartik may be playing the most important game of their good jounrney so far. Their win against RCB top order looks possible, as RCB batsmen may be desperate either in chase or batting first.
Ryder and Uthappa have once opened the inning for RCB. Both have just touched good form. That may be decisive for Warriors.
Despite the venue being Bangalore and RCB batting being dangerous, Warriors look well placed to create third upset in their memorable journey.
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