Desperate RCB brace for CSK

An electric start at the Eden Gardens followed by two numbing home defeats has left the Royal Challengers Bangalore desperately searching for a winning combination. Their problems are easy to determine but the solutions, seemingly aren’t. For long, RCB’s bowling has been the chink in the armour of a battingheavy team and the IPL-8 is no different.

If Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians proved tough with the Challengers slipping to demoralising defeats, then Wednesday night’s clash at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium promises to be a cauldron ranged as they are against the league’s most formidable team — Chennai Super Kings.

Forget the fear factor, for sheer consistency, the Super Kings are streets ahead of their rivals and though they stumbled to defeat against table toppers Rajasthan Royals in their previous game, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s yellow brigade pack so much power in their arsenal, it’s not funny.

Given their rivals’ intimidating batting line-up and depth, Virat Kohli’s outfit have a serious task of containing their opponents with their bowlers looking, suffice to say, mediocre.

Kohli has bemoaned the lack of bite in the Indian bowlers and Varun Aaron and Abu Nechim have been like the proverbial profligate millionaires, gifting freebies with the ball. Yet. there is ray at the end of the tunnel; Mitchell Starc arrived in the city on Monday night and the Aussie World Cup star is just the antidote the doctor ordered for the ailing RCB.

For CSK, the dangerous Brendon McCullum and the uninhibited Dwayne Smith at the top followed by the league’s most prolific rungetter Suresh Raina, Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo: the lineup is nothing short of a nightmare for the best bowlers.

The clash of the southern rivals has always been intense and if there is one thing that Gayle in particular and the Challengers in general would want to change is to buck the trend against the Ashwin & Co.’s Super Kings.