Virat Kohli, the stand-in captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore, has won the toss and opted to bowl first in the penultimate league fixture of the 2012 IPL, against bottom placed Deccan Chargers, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad today,
May 20, 2012.
The Deccan Chargers' captain, Kumar Sangakkara, returning to the playing XI after missing Friday’s thriller against Rajasthan Royals, said that he would have opted to bat in any case. The Sri Lankan said that the side is geared up after an impressive show
against Dravid and men and are looking forward to outclass another big team.
"Don't want to finish last, also knocking a big side out of the tournament is an incentive," said the Deccan skipper Kumar Sangakkara at the toss .
After staying at the bottom throughout the season, the lacklustre Deccan Chargers can today move ahead of Pune Warriors, given they clinch another upset win against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Another impact on IPL-V standings could be RCB’s elimination
from the knock-out stage, as a Deccan win would end RCB’s hopes of sneaking to the next round, allowing title holders, Chennai Super Kings, to stay in contention for defending the title a second successive time.
Kohli, standing in for regular skipper Virat Kohli, said that his side was really geared up for today’s must win game and are taking it as a “one big game before the final”.
The tourists have played an unchanged squad from the 21-run win over Delhi Daredevils. For Chargers, Kumar Sangakkara is the only change from their last match, coming in at the expense of Australian import Chris Lynn.
Playing XIs:
Deccan Chargers: 1. Akshath Reddy, 2. Shikhar Dhawan, 3. Cameron White, 4. Parthiv Patel (wk), 5. Kumar Sangakkara (capt), 6. Jean-Paul Duminy, 7. Ashish Reddy, 8. Dale Steyn, 9. Amit Mishra, 10. Manpreet Gony, 11. Veer Pratap Singh
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1. Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2. Chris Gayle, 3. Virat Kohli (capt), 4. Saurabh Tiwary, 5. AB de Villiers (wk), 6. Mayank Agarwal, 7. Vinay Kumar, 8. Zaheer Khan, 9. Harshal Patel, 10. Prasanth Parameswaran, 11. Muttiah
Muralitharan