IPL 2015, Qualifier 2: A Match-up Between Royal Challengers Bangalore's Temperament Against Chennai Super Kings's Current Form

The 8th edition of the Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) has been an amazing tournament so far, and the final two games - a virtual semi-final and final - involving three heavyweight teams, should live up to the billing, as well.

Can Dhoni find his mojo tonight, playing in Ranchi?

The JSCA International Stadium in Ranchi will host the second qualifier, a South Indian derby involving the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), to decide which team goes on to face the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, in the final of IPL 2015.

MS Dhoni's men have only won 40% of their last five games, and their performance in the first qualifier clearly demonstrated their immediate form prior to such a pivotal clash.

Virat Kohli's side, on the other hand, has lost just 1 of their last five games, and their performances have been very much up to the mark too.

Tonight's clash is all about which of these teams can bring their A-game to the table, and deliver their best cricket when it matters the most.

Chennai won both their games against Bangalore in the league phase of this edition of the IPL, but they were in pretty good form at the time and therefore, managed to overwhelm the Vijay Mallya-owned franchise.

Will the current form for either of these sides determine their passage into Sunday's finals? Or will Dhoni find his mojo tonight, playing in his hometown and defeat Team India's new Test captain Kohli once again? Answers to follow...

The player battles in this intriguing tussle between CSK and RCB could have a profound impact on the end result of the game.

Man-to-man there is not much to choose between these two star-studded lineups, with the Challengers, in particular, wanting to do well and overcome their ineptitude to win their first IPL title.

Talking of Chennai first, Brendon McCullum's significance to his side's form in the early phase of this IPL cannot be stressed enough: he was ultra-aggressive at the top of the order, and Dhoni's devils invariably got the upper hand very early on in their games, managing to do enough thereafter, to remain ahead of the opposition.

Dwayne Smith has struggled after a few good innings' early on, and Michael Hussey, with his conventional and calculated approach to cricket, will not bother most opponents.

du Plessis will hold the key to CSK's chances of winning this game

The Super Kings' middle order has flattered to deceive this season, and it simply got to come good tonight, in order for their side to have a chance of beating the red hot RCB.

The good news, however, for them is that the Challengers' bowling attack can be made to look ordinary, with Mitchell Starc being the only bowler who can pose danger to the batsmen regardless of the nature of the playing surface.

Chennai, for me, need to get their batting order sorted and what I mean by it is that Dhoni has been the villain for his side, failing to score quick runs and stick to a position in the batting lineup.

The Indian ODI skipper has walked into bat at various positions during the 15 games so far, upsetting the rhythm of the batsman in the middle and approach of the ones, Faf du Plessis, for instance, to follow him.

Even without McCullum, CSK have got the batsmen to cash in on a relatively inexperienced RCB attack, and are capable of posting a big total on the board if they do get to bat first.

Their bowling has been steady throughout the tournament and Dhoni, in the aftermath of defeat to MI in the first qualifier, admitted that he was happy with how his bowlers fared, even though Mumbai got up to 187 after looking like they would only get to 170, at best.

Ravindra Jadeja and Mohit Sharma, though, remain the weak links in their side's bowling attack, but it will be greatly surprising if Dhoni changes two of his trusted personnel, at this stage of the season.

Moving onto RCB, they look a better batting side compared to their opponents tonight. In AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Kohli, Bangalore have three batsmen in the top 10 leading run-scorers of the tournament, and will hold the key to tonight's encounter.

RCB must be in good spirits ahead of tonight's game

Gayle can be a bit of hit-and-miss, though he can do significant damage to the opponent' chances of winning if he bats for 10 overs; Kohli, while opening the batting along with the Jamaican, has sought to play the anchor role; and de Villiers, without having to say anything, looks totally irrepressible at the moment.

But, again, the Royal Challengers' batting lineup is akin to Chennai's, in that they too have a brittle middle order which can capitulate against the bowling trio of Ashish Nehra, Dwayne Bravo and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Mandeep Singh played a magnificent innings against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) a couple of nights back, and will once again have to step up to the plate tonight. The all-rounder skills of David Wiese will hold the key to RCB posting a big total if they bat first, or have to chase to reach the finals.

RCB's bowling attack has done well, but will have to come good against Chennai

Royal Challengers' bowling attack has done well, picking 96 wickets in the 15 games they have played. Yuzvendra Chahal and Harshal Patel have delivered wickets and consistency, picking 21 and 16 wickets, respectively, so far, but face their biggest test tonight against CSK.

Sreenath Arvind, in the 4 games, has done well, but needs to stand up tonight; Chennai might try to score heavily against him.

Summary

As you can see, there is absolutely 'nothing' to choose between CSK and RCB, who promise yet another intriguing T20 cricket match in this year's Pepsi IPL.

And, as the headline suggests, it will be a tussle between the Royal Challengers' temperament against the Super Kings' current form.

Indian Premier League (IPL): Will This Be Royal Challengers Bangalore' Year To Remember?

Virat Kohli will be determined to win the IPL this season

It wouldn't be unfair of any of us to claim that Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have been the greatest underachievers in seven previous seasons in the Indian Premier League.

The Vijay Mallya-owned franchise has always possessed some of the star-studded names - Kevin Pietersen, Dale Steyn, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Yuvraj Singh, to name a few - in world cricket, but have yet to win the prestigious IPL title.

They, however, have managed to reach the finals of the world's greatest T20 competition on two occasions, losing to the Deccan Chargers (now the Sunrisers Hyderabad) in 2009 and Chennai Super Kings in 2011.

In five other seasons, RCB made it to the last four once, while bowing out of the tournament in the league phase itself on four other occasions.

They haven't played to potential in most of the past seven IPL editions, but will the 8th edition of IPL be Royal Challengers'?

8th edition of the IPL

The Royal Challengers have not made many changes to their squad from the one they had last season.

Dinesh Karthik, bought from Delhi Daredevils (DD) for Rs. 10,50,00,000, has been the franchise' major purchase this season.

The likes of Darren Sammy, Adam Milne, David Wiese, Sean Abbott, Sarfaraz Khan, Subramaniam Badrinath, Jalaj Saxena and Shishir Bhavane have also been bought with the hope of further reinforcing the squad.

Virat Kohli, for the persona he has, will be rather determined to bring the very best of the squad he has at his disposal and win what would be his first major honor as an international skipper.

A quick review of what RCB have done so far in the tournament

The Royal Challengers came racing out of the blocks in their very first game of this IPL season, making a statement of intent with a comprehensive victory over the defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), on their own den.

Having been asked to bat first after losing the toss, Gautam Gambhir and co. put on a massive 177/6 in their allotted 20 overs.

The visitors, though, made a mockery of such a massive run chase, getting the job done with six balls to spare. Chris Gayle scored a 56-ball 96 to singlehandedly guide his side to a 4-wicket victory.

However, after that emphatic victory to begin their IPL campaign, the Challengers seemed to lose their way in the next three fixtures, two of which were against established and heavyweight franchises in the Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Even more obtrusively, all three of those games, including the one against the Sunrisers, were played on the cauldron of Chinnaswamy Stadium, but the home side went onto lose all three fixtures, and comprehensively, too.

Yuzvendra Chahal's wickets, David Wiese's all-round performances and Kohli's consistency with the bat, were the solitary positives to come out of those hat-trick of defeats that prompted us to think RCB may be no different to their previous three IPL seasons in which they failed to make it to the playoffs.

After the home defeat to the Super Kings, the Royal Challengers had the major proposition of facing Rajasthan Royals (RR) - who were playing a sublime brand of cricket and had lost just one of their first six fixtures - at the Motera.

Mitchell Starc has added potency to the RCB bowling attack

With Mitchell Starc clicking into gear in his second game after coming to India, RCB's bowling attack blew away the Royals' batting lineup that managed to put up a paltry 130 on the board. The Challengers, with Kohli anchoring the innings with a 46-ball 62 and AB de Villiers scoring a breezy 47 off 34 deliveries, romped to a 9-wicket victory with 23 balls to spare.

Kohli's men followed the rout of Royals with the decimation of Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Having been asked to bat after losing the toss, the Daredevils could muster a mere 95 on the board, with Starc once again picking up a 3-for and Wiese coming good with the ball and picking up two wickets.

Kohli and Gayle completed the formalities in 10.3 overs, without losing a wicket. Will such an imperious victory set the Challengers on their way into the playoffs after three barren years? Read on...

Team combination and strengths

Kohli, in the aftermath of the victory over DD, said that particular playing XI gives them a better balance, and alluded to maybe persisting with the same combination in the coming games too.

Kohli himself looks to have made his mind to open the batting for his side, playing the anchor role and letting the more explosive batsmen - Gayle and de Villiers - to play around him.

India's No.3 has batted immaculately while opening the innings in the last two games, remaining unbeaten on both the occasions and seeing his team through to victory.

Though you could say that Kohli opening the innings makes RCB's middle order a tad brittle, the Delhi batsman is more than capable of holding the innings together. Also, he hasn't taken a whole lot of risks, which has also been because of the moderate and low totals Challengers have been set recently, on occasions when he has opened the batting.

Gayle and de Villiers have always been a fearsome batting combo in the IPL circuit and, as long as one of them scores big runs, RCB will pose a major threat to most IPL outfits.

Kohli, Gayle and de Villiers are the batting mainstays as far as the Challengers are concerned. If Gayle and Kohli continue opening the innings for their side, de Villiers will have to shoulder the responsibility of the middle order that, barring Karthik and Rilee Rossouw, if the South African gets an outing, doesn't have a marquee batsman to contend with for the opposition. This scenario of RCB's is akin to Sunrisers' who have a very weak middle order and depend heavily on Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner to make the majority of the runs.

The bowling combination has a good look to it since Starc has come over from Australia. The left-arm quickie has picked up 7 wickets in the three games he has played so far, spearheading and adding more potency to the RCB attack.

Varun Aaron bowled well in RCB's last game against the Daredevils, but he has been expensive and inconsistent and that will have to change soon.

Harshal Patel, the Haryana fast bowler, has been disciplined in his bowling efforts, keeping the opposition batsmen quiet and picking up 5 wickets in his 5 outings so far in the tournament.

Wiese, with his medium-fast stuff and ability to bowl according to the playing surface, is another crucial component of the Challengers' bowling attack.

The spinners: Chahal, in particular, has bowled really well throughout the tournament, picking up 10 wickets in the 5 games he has played in so far; Iqbal Abdulla, the slow left-arm spinner from Mumbai, has done reasonably well in the 4 games he has played in.

Such a lineup gives the Royal Challengers real hope going into their next seven games of the campaign, which no doubt will be crucial to their chances of making it to the playoffs.

Also, by far the biggest strength of RCB is the set of overseas players they have at their disposal. Gayle, de Villiers and Starc are certainties in the Challengers' team sheet; add Wiese to that trio, and you have perfect blend of pure batsmen, bowler and all-rounder. I doubt any other franchise enjoys such a luxury in this aspect of the IPL.

Possible weaknesses

RCB are yet to win at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, which is a really high-scoring ground and toss plays a crucial role in the end-result of the game.

If you lose the toss and are asked to bat first, as a batting side you got to contend with the pressure of setting a total your bowlers can defend. But, even after posting totals in excess of 180, the target can be made to look a small one if one opposition batsman holds fort for his team.

This is one area that the Royal Challengers need to work on and possibly register a couple of victories in their upcoming home games against the Royals and Knight Riders.

The home form is a concern for the Royal Challengers

If they don't start winning on their home turf, they will make the task of making it to the last four that much more tougher for themselves, as they are yet to travel to venues like Wankhede Stadium and Chidambaram Stadium, where it is not going to be easy to get results, not that they are incapable of.

On current form, it is probably their home form that will cause some concern for them. In addition, the brittle middle order may cause them problems if Virat or Gayle, or both of them, fail on a given day and de Villiers has to stabilize the ship.

Final Thought

RCB may have won only 50% of their games so far in this season's IPL, but there are already signs that they are going to be a force to reckon with this season. Yes, there are a few chinks in their armor, like any other IPL side, but few sides have the balance that the Royal Challengers Bangalore enjoy.