The inaugural match of the Champions League T20 is between the Vijay Mallya owned Royal Challengers Bangalore (Team C1) and Cape Cobas (Team C2) of South Africa, to be played at Bangalore on the 8th of October 2009, at 8:00 pm IST.
After a poor first season, when RCB finished second last, the teams fortunes were dramatically reversed in Season 2 when they finished runners-up to Deccan Chargers Hyderabad in the IPL. What is more surprising, is that the team managed the turn-around after their star player, Kevin Peterson, who promised much but delivered little, left the team for the Ashes series. After being labelled a "test team" in IPL Season 1, with the likes of Rahul "The Wall" Dravid and Jacques Kallis in its line-up, all it took was one inspiring knock by Ross Taylor, who won the match almost single-handedly against the Kolkota Knight riders, from a near impossible position. Coming in at the fall of the second wicket at 63, in the 10th over, chasing a target of 174, Taylor blazed his way to an unbeaten 81 of 33 balls, carving 7 boundaries and 5 sixers in his innings. IN the last league match, Manish Pandey became the first and only Indian to score a century in IPL-2 against Deccan Chargers Hyderabad and this ensured he got a "earful of batting advice" from Andrew Symonds, when the two teams met the next time in the finals.
RCB has it fair share of good bowlers for this format - you can hardly find anyone more miserly than Anil Kumble who rediscovered himself in IPL-2 after retiring from Test cricket. Throw in Dale Steyn, one of the world's fastest bowlers, Praveen Kumar and all-rounder Jacques Kallis and you have a formidable attack. And one should not forget Robin Uthappa's ability as a bowler - who can forget the "hat salute" act of his after he hit the stumps in the tie-breaker against Pakistan in the inaugural T20 World Cup. Mark Boucher, Jesse Ryder, van der Merwe and Virat Kohli are the other international players in this team.
Match Record
Matches Played - 30
Matches Won - 13
Matches Lost - 17
Players to watch out for:
Batsmen -
Rahul "The Wall" Dravid is the leading scorer for the team with 642 runs from 27 matches; Ross Taylor has the best strike rate of 148.44 runs per 100 balls faced, having scored his 429 runs in just 15 matches; Manish Pandey is the young sensation who has the distinction of being the only Indian to score a century in IPL-2 and he is the only centurion for this team, which makes his average of 84 after 5 matches look very impressive.
Bowlers -
Anil Kumble has the best record on all parameters - most wickets (28 in 26 matches), best bowling figures (5/5), best economy rate (6.67 runs per over), best average (23.25 runs per wicket) and best strike rate (20.8 balls per wicket) for the team; Dale Steyn can be dangerous provided he stays fit and gets a chance to play; Praveen Kumar is the next best bet for RCB
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