Daijiworld Media Network

Dubai, Apr 19: Hello, hello, friends. Another round of double-headers today. First up is the clash of the big guns, Bangalore vs Mumbai. The former, fresh from a crushing win against Delhi, will be keen to continue the good work. Yuvraj's baack! Mitchell Starc's propensity to swing the new ball also bodes well for the side. Serving as a link-batsman between the power-packed top order and an equally potent lower middle order, Yuvi's role will assume more significance if Gayle fails to recover from the back problem.

Meanwhile, Mumbai, having faltered against Kolkata, will seek to hit their straps quickly. As Rohit Sharma stressed at the post match presentation, these are still early days in the tournament. Toss, teams and much more heading your way.

Bangalore won the toss and elected to field

Match Preview :

With their confidence on a high after a comfortable win against Delhi in their opening match, Bangalore will look to extend their winning run when they take on Mumbai at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Meanwhile, the defending champions, who came up short in all departments against Kolkata in their campaign opener, will quickly look to get back on track and register their first win.

Head to head: Bangalore and Mumbai have faced each other in 13 matches so far. Mumbai have a higher percentage of wins against the Bangalore, having emerged victorious 7 times while ending up on the losing side in six games.

Bangalore:

The team in red came up with a clinical performance in their first match to register an 8-wicket win with 20 deliveries to spare against Delhi. Despite the absence of Chris Gayle, Bangalore were given a solid start with Parthiv Patel showcasing good hitting skills. While Nic Maddinson failed to come to the party, it did not affect the two-time finalists as the wicket-keeper batsman found the fence regularly and was supported well by the in-form skipper Virat Kohli. What would please Bangalore the most is that Yuvraj Singh, who came under a lot of flak for his performance with the bat in the T20 WC final, came up with a blistering half-century to see them through. Bangalore will be hoping that the batters keep up their good work and come up with more such powerful performances.

Bangalore's bowling was seen as a weak-link in the previous editions of the tournament, but going by their performance against Delhi, the current team has a lot of fire-power with the ball. Australian pacer Mitchell Starc came up with a lively spell at the start, bowling testing lines at the Delhi batters. However, he did go for a few during the death, to finish with figures of 1/33 from his four overs. Varun Aaron was excellent with the ball, conceding just 9 runs from his three overs and had a wicket to speak for his efforts while Albie Morkel did a good job too, finishing with 1/18 from his three. The pick of the lot was the young uncapped leggie Yuzvendra Chahal, who won the Man of the Match award for his fine showing of 1/18 from his four. While Kohli and the team management will be happy with this, what will bother them is their death bowling. While Starc gave away a few, Ashok Dinda had a dismal outing as he ended up conceding 51 runs and did not pick up a wicket.

Mumbai:

With Sachin Tendulkar having retired from all forms of the game and Dwayne Smith landing up in the Chennai team, Mumbai's top order bears an unfamiliar look. Michael Hussey fell after a struggle against Kolkata while wicket-keeper batsman Aditya Tare could not convert his start. Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma did spend some time at the middle, but they too could not force the pace against the Kolkata bowlers, especially Sunil Narine, who came up with an excellent spell. All-rounders Kieron Pollard and Corey Anderson also struggled to get going and Mumbai ended up losing their opening match by a big margin of 41 runs, chasing a target of 164. Skipper Rohit will be expecting a better performance from the batters and will be hoping that they can get used to the condition sooner, as a one or two more losses will leave the defending champions with a lot of catching up to do going forward in the tournament.

Lasith Malinga, who was in superb form in the T20 WC, extended his good run with a terrific showing against Kolkata, picking up a four wicket haul while he also did not concede too many runs. The experienced Zaheer Khan also did well with the ball, finishing with economical returns. However, the performance of the rest of the bowlers was not up to the mark, as a result of which Mumbai ended up conceding more than what they would have hoped for. New Zealand all-rounder Anderson was the most expensive of the lot, giving away 33 runs from his three overs, while Pollard too was taken for a few. The spinners also failed to make an impact with Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha turning out to be expensive. Coach John Wright and the team management will be hoping that the bowlers hit the right lengths and come up with a disciplined showing in the upcoming games.

Team News:

Bangalore will be waiting on Chris Gayle's fitness before deciding on the eleven for this match. In case the big-hitting Jamaican is fit, the Kohli-led side will bring him in in place of Nic Maddinson. Meanwhile, changes in the Mumbai line-up are unlikely.

Quotes:

I have had five stress fractures and still haven't cut down on pace and I don't think I ever will: Varun Aaron

Teams:

Bangalore (From): Nic Maddinson, Parthiv Patel(w), Virat Kohli(c), Yuvraj Singh, AB de Villiers, Sachin Rana, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Varun Aaron, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Vijay Zol, Abu Nechim, Chris Gayle, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Tanmay Mishra, Yogesh Takawale

Mumbai (From): Michael Hussey, Aditya Tare, Rohit Sharma(c), Ambati Rayudu, Corey Anderson, Kieron Pollard, Chidhambaram Gautam(w), Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Josh Hazlewood, Sushant Marathe, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Jalaj Saxena, Apoorv Wankhade, Marchant de Lange, Krishmar Santokie, Ben Dunk, Pawan Suyal