Preview: Royal Challengers Bangalore v/s Kochi Tuskers Kerala

Chintan Vora 08 Apr 2011

Royal Challengers Bangalore versus Kochi Tuskers Kerala on 9th April, 2011 at Kochi

The newbies of IPL take on old warhorses on 9th of April, 2011 at Kochi. But in a game as unpredictable as a T20, calling oneself favourites may not be the right thing to do.

After the success of Cricket World Cup 2011, World now knows why India is the best place for cricket - The crowd support, the number of grounds, passion and enthusiasm amongst the crowd is unmatched and unparalled.

For Royal Challengers of Bangalore, it is as good as starting from the scratch. The team is new, players are new, but the aim is still the same - To win IPL! RCB would heavily rely on Virat Kohli and Zaheer Khan who are fresh from their exploits in the World Cup. Virat now seems to be really high on confidence by being part of two World Cup triumphs - Under 19 World Cup and World Cup 2011. Zaheer is now so close to be called the World's best bowler.

Here is the SWOT analysis of RCB before their match against Kochi Tuskers:

Strength:

Zaheer, Virat, Dilshan, AB De villiers in good form
An inspirational captain in Daniel Vettori
Left Arm attack is not easy to play - Zaheer, Nannes, Vettori
Presence of Anil Kumble in dressing room as a mentor
Strong fielding side with lot of youngsters in the team

Weakness:

First match as a team
World cup may have taken toll on players

Opputunities:

A great chance for likes of Sourabh Tiwary, Mithun, Pujara, Kaif, etc to prove their mettle
Kochi is playing their first inagural IPL, exploit the pressure on them

Threats:

Jayawardene showed in final match, what he is capable of
The mercurial Muralidaran and Brendon Mcculum can really take the game away from opponents

The players are ready, the stadium is ready, fans can't wait any longer, so what are we waiting for? Let the game begin!