Steady Chennai take on confident Rajasthan

Big picture
While the IPL is only into its fifth season, the teams have already developed different reputations for what can be expected from them on the field. Chennai Super Kings are known for their ability to withstand pressure, fight back and win from weak positions. Rajasthan Royals are known for making the most of their comparatively thin resources and competing with the more power-packed sides. Both sides have displayed these traits this season as well. Having started shakily, Super Kings have managed to position themselves in the middle of the points table despite clearly being nowhere near their best as yet. Bolstered by new arrivals like Owais Shah and Brad Hodge, Royals have been one of the sides to beat so far.

Super Kings' decision to leave out M Vijay and promote S Badrinath to partner Faf du Plessis at the top of the order provided them a solid base in their previous game against Pune Warriors. Their medium-pacers and spinners then choked the Warriors batsmen. Super Kings will start slightly in front at home but Royals will be confident having chased 197 in their previous game against Deccan Chargers.

Players to watch
R Ashwin owes his early fame to the IPL, with strong shows in the 2010 and 2011 seasons. His lack of penetration at the international level recently has carried over into the IPL, with only two wickets this season from six games. His economy-rate, though, hasn't suffered but he needs to strike more as his side's lead spinner.

With an unbeaten century and a 98, Ajinkya Rahane has impressed with his uninhibited yet orthodox hitting. Both knocks have come on surfaces in Jaipur and Bangalore where the ball has come on; it usually does not in Chennai, and it will be interesting to see how Rahane adapts.

2011 head-to-head
Royals lost both their games to Super Kings in 2011. Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina easily chased 148 in Chennai while Super Kings' batting power was too much for Royals in Jaipur.

Stats and trivia
Before the start of this IPL, Rahane had 583 runs at a strike-rate of 110 from 42 Twenty20s. He has made 304 at 146.15 from six games so far.
Since losing the 2008 IPL final to Royals, Super Kings have won five of the next six games against them .
Quotes
"Rajasthan Royals have always been considered the underdogs. At the start of the tournament, we're never considered a strong team by the oppositions, and it is the same case this time... [But] I believe this is our strongest team in all five seasons."
Royals medium-pacer Siddharth Trived

Scorecard(KXIP vs RCB)

Indian Premier League - 25th match

Kings XI Punjab v Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 5 wickets (with 3 balls remaining)

Kings XI Punjab innings (20 overs maximum)		R	B	4s	6s	SR
	N Saini†	b Khan	14	12	1	0	116.66
	PC Valthaty	c de Villiers b Khan	6	12	1	0	50.00
	SE Marsh	b McDonald	26	17	3	1	152.94
	DJ Hussey*	b Patel	41	34	4	0	120.58
	DA Miller	c Khan b McDonald	8	13	0	0	61.53
	Mandeep Singh	c Kohli b Vinay Kumar	20	15	0	0	133.33
	Azhar Mahmood	not out	33	14	3	2	235.71
	PP Chawla	not out	7	3	1	0	233.33
	Extras	(b 1, lb 4, w 3)	8
	Total	(6 wickets; 20 overs)	163	(8.15 runs per over)

Did not bat P Awana, P Kumar, Harmeet Singh

Fall of wickets 1-14 (Saini, 2.4 ov), 2-27 (Valthaty, 4.6 ov), 3-57 (Marsh, 8.1 ov), 4-94 (Miller, 13.6 ov),5-105 (Hussey, 14.6 ov), 6-149 (Mandeep Singh, 19.1 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	Z Khan	4	0	25	2	6.25
	R Vinay Kumar	4	0	40	1	10.00
	HV Patel	4	0	44	1	11.00	(1w)
	AB McDonald	4	0	25	2	6.25	(1w)
	DL Vettori	4	0	24	0	6.00	(1w)

	Royal Challengers Bangalore innings (target: 164 runs from 20 overs)		R	B	4s	6s	SR
	MA Agarwal	lbw b Awana	1	3	0	0	33.33
	CH Gayle	c Hussey b Awana	87	56	8	4	155.35
	V Kohli	c Marsh b Awana	4	4	1	0	100.00
	SS Tiwary	c †Saini b Awana	4	7	0	0	57.14
	AB de Villiers	lbw b Chawla	52	39	6	0	133.33
	AB McDonald	not out	8	6	1	0	133.33
	DL Vettori*	not out	2	3	0	0	66.66
	Extras	(w 7, nb 1)	8
	Total	(5 wickets; 19.3 overs)	166	(8.51 runs per over)

Did not bat KB Arun Karthik†, R Vinay Kumar, HV Patel, Z Khan

Fall of wickets 1-4 (Agarwal, 1.2 ov), 2-8 (Kohli, 1.6 ov), 3-25 (Tiwary, 5.1 ov), 4-156 (Gayle, 17.4 ov),5-158 (de Villiers, 18.3 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	P Kumar	4	0	35	0	8.75	(4w)
	P Awana	4	0	34	4	8.50	(1nb, 1w)
	PP Chawla	4	0	21	1	5.25
	Harmeet Singh	4	0	46	0	11.50	(1w)
	Azhar Mahmood	3.3	0	30	0	8.57	(1w)

Match details

Toss Royal Challengers Bangalore, who chose to field Points Royal Challengers Bangalore 2, Kings XI Punjab 0

Player of the match CH Gayle (Royal Challengers Bangalore)

Umpires S Ravi and RJ Tucker (Australia) TV umpire JD Cloete (South Africa) Match referee RS Mahanama (Sri Lanka) Reserve umpire B Vij

Match notes

Powerplay 1: Overs 0.1 - 6.0 (Mandatory - 41 runs, 2 wickets) Kings XI Punjab: 50 runs in 6.6 overs (42 balls), Extras 0 Kings XI Punjab: 100 runs in 14.3 overs (87 balls), Extras 7 Kings XI Punjab: 150 runs in 19.2 overs (116 balls), Extras 8 Innings Break: Kings XI Punjab - 163/6 in 20.0 overs (Azhar Mahmood 33, PP Chawla 7) Powerplay 1: Overs 0.1 - 6.0 (Mandatory - 36 runs, 3 wickets) Royal Challengers Bangalore: 50 runs in 8.1 overs (49 balls), Extras 2 4th Wicket: 50 runs in 34 balls (CH Gayle 26, AB de Villiers 24, Ex 0) CH Gayle: 50 off 41 balls (5 x 4, 1 x 6) Royal Challengers Bangalore: 100 runs in 13.2 overs (80 balls), Extras 3 4th Wicket: 100 runs in 62 balls (CH Gayle 56, AB de Villiers 45, Ex 2) AB de Villiers: 50 off 36 balls (6 x 4) Royal Challengers Bangalore: 150 runs in 17.2 overs (105 balls), Extras 8

• Twenty20 match | 2012 season
• Played at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
• 20 April 2012 - day/night (20-over match)

Gayle, de Villiers seal comfortable Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore 166 for 5 (Gayle 87, de Villiers 52, Awana 4-34) beat Kings XI Punjab 163 for 6 (Hussey 41, Mahmood 33*) by five wickets

For a while, Kings XI Punjab showed some fight.Azhar Mahmood turned a middling total into a seemingly challenging one. Parvinder Awana jolted Royal Challengers Bangalore with three early strikes. But the visitors had Chris Gayle. And AB de Villiers. A nearly risk-free partnership of 131 at more than ten runs an over followed, shutting Kings XI out totally.

At 25 for 3 facing an asking-rate touching nine-and-a-half, Royal Challengers should have been pushed much more than they were. That they were not was down to the class of Gayle and de Villiers and the lack of depth in the Kings XI attack.

When they needed someone to increase the pressure after Awana's initial burst, Kings XI instead had Harmeet Singh delivering innocuous legbreaks from a long run-up on a greenish pitch. They were also confronted with two batsmen who were so much in control of the situation that they did not even bother to attack as much as they usually do.

Gayle kept the big strokes away as long as he could rein himself in but that did not deter him from scoring boundaries at will. Awana had just taken out Mayank Agarwal and Virat Kohli in the space of five deliveries. Gayle responded with consecutive fours off Praveen Kumar in the next over.

Awana had Saurabh Tiwary top-edging to the wicketkeeper off the first ball of the sixth over. Gayle responded with another pair of boundaries. He softly turned deliveries through square leg for runs while de Villiers found his timing as soon as he arrived.

De Villiers, in fact, went along at a faster clip than Gayle initially, tapering off towards the end as the latter finally decided to display his range with some huge straight hits.

The game went to the last over only because Gayle and de Villiers fell on the brink of victory. In the end, Royal Challengers had just too much power for a ragged Kings XI unit. That Kings XI even set the visitors a reasonable chase was down to Mahmood, the former Pakistan allrounder debuting in the IPL as a British citizen. He breathed life into a stuttering innings after Kings XI had once again been let down by their batsmen. Coming in at No. 7 in the 16th over, Mahmood smashed 33 off 14 deliveries as Kings XI posted their highest total of the season.

Despite three of five bowlers used going for around six runs an over, Royal Challengers discovered there were still enough weak links in their attack for even a shaky Kings XI line-up to exploit. Harshal Patel disappeared for 44 and Vinay Kumar for 40 as Kings XI took 51 off the final four overs.

Kings XI had sleepwalked to 105 by the 15th over, and the departure of David Hussey off the last ball of that over had further dented their hopes of posting a decent total. Mahmood walked in and completely changed the tempo of the innings. Harshal was thumped over mid-off and midwicket for consecutive boundaries; Vinay was calmly dabbed between the wicketkeeper and wide slip for four.

Royal Challengers had been on top till Mahmood's arrival. Only Shaun Marsh and Hussey had dominated them in a three-over span. Even that partnership had been terminated before it could cause much damage. After playing some pleasing cover drives, Marsh was bowled for 26 as he tried to late-cut Andrew McDonald.

Marsh's fall came after Zaheer Khan, enjoying the bounce on the Mohali pitch and bowling with control from both sides of the wicket, had removed the Kings XI openers early. Stand-in captain Hussey, leading in place of the injured Adam Gilchrist, kept the home side going steadily but fell when they were in need of a late boost. It was to come from Mahmood, and gave their medium-pacers some leeway to exploit a favourable pitch. Awana did that, but Gayle and de Villiers were unstoppable.

Innings Dot balls 4s 6s PP Last 5 overs NB/Wides Kings XI Punjab 41 13 3 41/2 58/1 0/3 Royal Challengers Bangalore 48 16 4 36/3 50/2 (15 -19.3) 1/7