manish n robin will make a good opening combo.........since......... t20 cricket is all about bang bang........ n kallis 1st down then dravid followed by virat or morgan............

ROBIN UTHAPPA IS ONE OF THE BEST OPENERS IN THE WORLD!!! Sachin TENDULKAR was no idiot to push MI management go so far to buy him for a whopping $800,000… but please like the India ntional team did RC just dont fiddle around wth his batting positions and hurt his cricket career as a player… Please show some confidence on the India Record holder for the highest score on ODI debut!!!! The walkin asassin if playing in my opinion should play only as an opener or else please find a franchise who can stick to the players likes and passions and let him play for them… For me if his place is cemented as an opener he is still young and talented can go on to become a legend… I used to spend hours to get his batting videos online… How i wish i could get his email id or contact number just to appreciate his selfless actions while playing for team India…

Excuses if you find this post in strong language…

WE MUST IMPROVE OUR FIELDING ....... N BALL IN D RIGHT AREAS N NOT GIVE THEM...LENGTH BALLS SO THAT THEY CAN'T UNDER D BALL.... N HIT OVER D TOP LIKE TIWARY DID 2 KALLIS..... ACTUALLY MISSING D SERVICES OF "NATHAN BRACKEN"

A revised team with a revised batting order could do the trick.
1.Robin
2.Kallis
3.Rahul
4.Kohli
5.Morgan(WK)
6.Petersen
7.Pandey
8.Vinay Kumar
9.Merwe
10.Mithun
11.Kumble(captain)
With 5 specialist bowlers & 2 part timers in Kohli & Petersen, this is the best XI that we could play...
MR.JENNINGS pls read this, SIR!

It was definetly not the best of starts ever for RCB.
But every mistake made yesterday should be taken seriously and remedy should be sought for.
BATTING ORDER
was not right at all
why keep Uthappa & Pandey down the order they cannot perform there for sure
THE order should be like this in the future: PANDEY, ROBIN, KALLIS, DRAVID,KOHLI, MORGAN(wk),BOUCHER/WHITE,VAN DE ,PRAVEEN ,VINAY/MITHUN,KUMBLE .....
COME ON RCB ITS JUST THE BEGINING WE CAN STILL PERFORM BETTER WE DEFINETLY HAVE THE FIRE in the BELLY its just a matter of one good match to come then onwards its no looking back...
CHEERS ALL THE BEST

Failure happened in combination yesterday. Strategies werent bad, they just didnt work thats all. Goswami should not be blamed for his batting - he was prepared by the coach in advance for the sort of batting he did. Though his keeping wasnt good. This lad has talent, and was in form too, dont write him off please. Yesterday, Langefeldt and Ishant were too good for him. I agree, we should have Pandey to open but Uthappa is not that reliable. He has flopped many times opening and in fact, his form is the worst so far this year - guys forgot his lack of contribution in both innings of the Ranji final which we lost so narrowly to Mumbai? Virat's failure was the biggest blow yesterday.
Morgan, Dravid, Kallis, Virat and Manish will be our saviours going forward. Even without Taylor or KP, we are fine. We just need White and Smith to join us, thats all. by the way, we have many options for part time wicket keeping that includes Morgan (apart from Uthappa and Dravid). The only worry about including Boucher for wicket keeping is that, we have to sacrifice a foreign batsman or a bowler which we cant afford to. Just look back and see Boucher's performance for RCB - you will understand why he should not be 'walking in' to the team.
Bowling side, not much for fast bowlers in this format. Thats why perhaps Kumble started with Kallis's medium pacers than Steyn's fast half volleys! Why our bowlers not bowling yorkers? Jennings has to spend a lot of time with our pacers to bowl these deliveries - see how other teams are mastering this art to perfection.

Some one posted this line up,

1.Robin Uthappa
2.J. Kallis*
3.R. V. Merve (make use f pp as n make/brk)*
4.M. Pandey
5.E. Morgan*
6.V. Kohli
7.R. Dravid(wk)
8.D. Steyn*
9.A. Kumble
10.P. Kumar
11.V.Kumar

---------

Why not ask Dravid to bowl ? Gods sake, Dravid is not a band-aid, not a slogger, not a floater, but he is your BEST batsmen. Play him at No.3 without any second thoughts.

I think Kumble did the right thing to experiment in the first match rather than doing it when in the middle. Now we know who can perform. Goswami doesnt have the attitude. He is no where near the stumps when someone throws the ball after fielding. Forgot the basics?. hmmm... Steyn is a pure test match bowler. I havent seen this guy bowling in the block hole at all. Kallis needs to improve his disguising skills when he bowls a slow ball. Boucher is required. I think the new lad Mithun Abhimanyu is more suitable. This guy can bat too... he did well for a number 10 against SA in the last match in the recent series. And no one shud replace dravid from number 3 spot.

i also y robbie is not keeping if he is keeping then its a gud side:
kallis(@),robbie(wkt),rahul,morgan(@),virat,pandey,merwe(@),praveen,vinay,dale(@),kumble.

yesterday as ganguly won the toss he said that in the begining the wicket would we slow but he local boy goswami did not show his performance instead of playing few ball with straight bat he started trying to throw his bat at every ball.after a bad start pandey was sent instead of dravid should have been sent.but pandey also instead of settling in the wicket started hittng and went early.after this collapse also dravid was not sent but virat was sent he could have batted but i dont know what went on his mine that he threw his bat too.after his dissmal every one thought that dravid would come but morgan came up.morgan after hitting a six showed his intentions and he also got out too.then came the wall but it was too late dravid settled for some time but his end came quickly.now it was up to kallis and robbie.kallis was batting sensibly. roobie thinking that there r less overs threw away his bat at every ball and got some runs after that merwe who batted for a gully buy and went in the first bowl.thanks to kallis who led team to rich 136.
during the bowling no one bowled well except of praveen.wicket keeping was hopeless from goswami.
rbc should make changes like vinay/mithun instead of dale and bring in boucher instead of goswami.my batting order would be:
kallis
robbie
if gud start
morgan
virat
pandey
boucher
dravid
praveen
merwe
vinay/mithun
kumble
if not gud start
dravid
boucher
virat
pandey
morgan(to score runs during the last overs)
praveen
merwe
vinay/mitun
kumble.

RCB- my favourite team and i was very disappointed by their show aganist KKR..RCB did not put enough runs on the board to defend their score..Kallis was at his superb touch..rest of them all played some rash shots and got out.. and some players invented new ways of getting out in IPL..Captaincy was great..and there is more room for improvement in the fielding and bowling areas..still a lot more matches to go in the tournament.. so we can hope that RCB returns to its winning ways as early as possible...ALL THE BEST RCB..

Changes needs to be made in the RCB team.
Batting Order.
1. Kallis
2. Utappa
3. Rahul
4. Kholi
5. Morgan
6. Manish
7. Boucher
8. Mithun
9. Praveen
10. Steyn
11. Kumble

If Kumble is confident of Uttappa keeping for his bowling than in place of Boucher Van de marwe or Cameron White can be played if Van de marwe place bowling attack will be strong if White place with the form he is in the score will get boost of 20 to 30 runs.

as someone commented earlier, we missed ROSS TAYLOR... nobody in our team is as aggressive as him... he can change the momentum of the game at any point of time... hope he will come back soon..

1-Robin Uthappa must hav openedd!!! he is 1 of INDIAS BEST OPENERS!!! common he has proven time and again he can open n play well during the powerplays.. moreover shreevats is stilla kid who doesnt hav much f International/IPL experience.. Thus if nxt game we need electrifying starts Robin must open

2_Vinay Kumar/Abhimanyu MIthu should play next game!!!

WHERE IS ROBIN UTHAPPA THE OPENENING BATSMAN??? I am not commenting just because i am a fan of Uthappa... I mean it... He is one of the very best openers in India... and still he holds the record for the highest score on Debut at ODI's for India...

My Prefered batting order till RT & KP arrives;

1.Robin Uthappa
2.J. Kallis*
3.R. V. Merve (make use f pp as n make/brk)*
4.M. Pandey
5.E. Morgan*
6.V. Kohli
7.R. Dravid(wk)
8.D. Steyn*
9.A. Kumble
10.P. Kumar
11.V.Kumar

Certainly A slow start & Poor Line up, We have enough Talent & Experience, Just need to utilize Resources available appropriately. I believe Manish & Robin to open, Morgan, RD, kallis, kohli > we will combak with BANG...aldebest

4d next game I'd suggest 2changes....What say Fans...
Boucher In...Goswami Out..
A bowler In....Steyn Out..

It makes no sense making Kallis open...He might even bowl at the Depth if required...We need our openers to be Fresh....
Morgan...n Manish Pandey seem to fit the bill perfectly....
Morgan can hit quite a few monstrous sixes...It wud be gr8 if we can settle our opening pair...
Even Pandey and Uthappa make a good pair if Morgan isn't in the long run of planning...and Morgan can take Uthappa's place..
1 Question?????????Can anyone explain....
Why are u'll hell bent on making KALLIS Open?????
He's a gr8 allrounder..No questions bout dat...but he's alwz batted Down the Order even for his National Team..Coach I hope you are aware...

How can you send RCB's BEST BATSMAN......THE WALL at No 6 and then expect to win??????
Its very sad to see how much underrated he is in the team...Get him to No.3...He's your Best batsman and should bat the maximum and that too with no pressure...Order should alwz be:
1)Morgan- Kindly use his abilities at the start.. Kallis is not a natural opener...We need a LH-RH Combination...
2)Pandey - He's done it quite well last year...He should be continued even if he fails once or twice..Groom him..He can win matches alone on his day
3)Dravid - This is the Wall's Place...Let him decimate opponents wid his Innovation,Solidity and sweeps..
4)Kohli - Unleash the Bomb
5)Kallis-Sheet Anchor...Provide support and Go on till the end...
6)Uthappa-Big Hitting/ He can be used as a Reserve Keeper
7)Goswami-WK/ Get a bowler in if he aint performing
8)Van Der Merve- Champ
9)Praveen Kumar-Dark Horse
10)Kumble- Gladiator
11)Steyn - Bazooka...
Signing Off...
Rahul Arora
alwzchamps

Order Should be:
1.Kallis
2. & 6. Uthappa/Manish Pandey
3. Dravid
4. Morgan/Peterson/Taylor/Cameron White
5. Kohli
7. Boucher
8. Merwe/Steyn/Preeze
9. Praveen Kumar
10. Vinay Kumar/M Abhimanyu
11. Kumble
Except Kallis, There is no genuine All rounders in RCB. RCB needs Genuine All Rounders like Peterson, Flintoff, Polard, Mathews, Dilshan, Kemp, M Morkel, M Clarke, Afridhi, Chris Crains

Today was the first game and our batting order is still incomplete.

1) Kevin Pietersen
2) Ross Taylor
3) Jesse Ryder
4) Cameron White

once they come in .. we are looking at really strong team with Eoin Morgan, Rahul Dravid and Uthappa there is no stopping us.

Yes i do agree our bowling and fielding was poor on the field today, but looking at a small target to defend it isn't easy on the bowlers.

Mark Boucher as Wicketkeeper must be brought in.
Deyle Steyn must stay in. He is our only fast pace.
Goswami should rest
Dillon Du Preez should be played if he has arrived.

I strongly believe our bowling is still strong, we just need to give the bowlers a strong score to defend.

Rahul Dravid and Cameron White opening should be perfect for power play overs against fast bowlers.
3) Jesse Ryder ( power play overs )
4) Kevin Pietersen ( around 7th-9th over most likely )
5) Ross Taylor ( 10-14th over for spinners )
6) Eoin Morgan ( 13-16th over, smart batting ) and a BOWLER
7) Van De Merwe ( spin bowling and unleashes the bat for runs )
8) Kohli ( wicketkeeper and batting )

Bowling
9) Deyle Steyn ( good bowler bring him on early overs and 15-17th over )
10) Praveen Kumar ( alone with Deyle Steyn .. dont let them score in power plays .. pick up the early wicket and shift to spinners)
11) Anil Kumble ( we know what he can do )

I was also hoping RCB would buy Keiron Pollard and unluckily we got outbid, but wow what an asset he would have been.

But RCB can win this, we have talent, we are known as the side with young talent, but lets bring home a trophy with the experience we have?

Lets not let them call us a test team anymore.

Thank you Mr.Mallya for adding glamor to RCB but we would not mind more at all ;) Lets do something that would get people talking about our team. Our players should be proud to play for Bengaluru.
When they come to play in Bengaluru let them not forget how it was to play or watch a match here.

As most of the comments were spot-on, it was more of a strategical loss than anything else. I was very much surprised at the first sight of today's playing eleven; still not able to figure it out why it was so. There are really some reliable local talents warming the bench in our side so today's team was certainly not the best available combination. Anyways lets move on, RC's think tank will work their best to come out good in the next encounter. And we all have seen knee jerk reaction in the past when it comes to changes in the playing 11 after a loss. So lets just hope likes of boucher, vinaykumar, mithun play tomorrow and hope for the good result. Kudos..

We can anyone at No3 morgan,virat,boucher depending on the situation. we have the most flexible batting line up!!!! we ll do well for sure good that we learnt the lessons early in the tournament!!!!!! we rock!!!!! we tend to learn more when we lose!!!!!!

Batting order should be:
kallis
Robin
Dravid/pandey
Morgan
Virat
Boucher
Praveen kumar
van der merwe
Robin can tear apart the opposition if he settles in
Dravid can be sent at No 3 if an early wicket is gone
pandey at No3 if we are going well (like 50/1 after 6 overs)
morgan and kohli to carry on with the scoring rate
boucher,praveen and van der merwe can chip in with cameos during the slog overs(from over 17 to 20). Wat say guys??? is this a gud batting line up?? do you accept with it???

ok we lost badly to kkr...but we should not repeat it..we lost because of poor decisions in the batting order.Do not hide the best batsmen in the team. rahul.dravid sholud be sent at no 3 (1st down).play boucher rest steyn .Steyn does not suit these conditions .rest gowswami play vinay kumar/mithun .Send uthapppa up the order to open if he does not perform rest him and play B akhil/arun kumar .Robin is a liability to the team than an asset .People in RCB administration please read the blogs of fans.I do not know why robin is picked again and again after performing so badly match after match, consistently????Someone should attack in first 6 overs...morgan might play give him a chance!!!!!

RCB missed ROSS taylor.... and RCB batsmen should try to b more aggressive score 60+ in power play... batsmen should dominate bowlers...) aggressive batting

Batting Rahul Dravid @ No 6, even after two quick wickets ?. God knews RCB strategies...!!

I have no idea what went wrong today.. All i know is Am a proud fanatic fan of Royal Challengers and i have faith that they will make some miracle this IPL season..
Rock on!! RCB

Who was that dude keeping the wickets today?? I can keep better than that, it almost looked as if the dude was in complete oblivion until someone woke him up and asked him to keep in today's game...Batting was just a big disaster, other than Kallis everyone else either played absolute rubbish or they picked the wrong shot that led to their dismissal..Bowling also was equally a big disaster, especially the seamer's...I guess it's time for the boys to sit back and rethink about their strategy and the team line up...Not every time you can rely on the last few games to put you on top of the league table..It's better to play well now than struggle later..Go RC Go, we still are game for you!!

the problem with our team, after seeing the first match...

Conditions and Toss:
--------------------------------
Toss... pitch was very slow in the earlier stages of the match..

Batting
------------
1. Batsmen failed to time the ball totally.. they went on to hit blindly.. the bowler A. Mathews from KKR bowled superbly with lot of pace variation...
2. Batting order needs to be changed.. RD should come up the order..
3. No big hitters in the side compare to other teams... (we do hve..but they are yet to join)

Bowling:
--------------
1. Steyn and kallis were pathetic... no variation of the pace at all... the kind of bowling from steyn will work in test matches but not in T20...

2. couple of missfields especially Goswami..
3. and offcourse there was not enough score in the scoreboard to defend...


Hope we recover from this damage as soon as possible instead of waiting for the arrival of the big players in the later stage of the match...

The team should do away with Steyn.He has always been in the IPL only for the moolah. He does not bowl his heart out as he does it when he turns out for SA. Shld bring Vinay in his place and play Cameron Leon White in the next game.Goswami can take a break reorganize and return.Morgan seems better off as a keeper than a fielder.

Lack of planning and poor batting line up was the reason.
Not a problem anyways. Boys have learnt a good lesson in the early stage of the series.
Hope for the best.
RCB ROCKS!!!!!!!

we should stop criticizing the captaincy...
think wat would have happened if Mr.Kumble had not led the side??

today everthing was lookin in a mess

poor batting and very poor keeping from Gowswami...... well enough of him and Steyn.. Bring Vinay back and also 1 and only keeper of RCB Boucher....

Nothing's gone wrong! God says "In IPL every team has to lose a few matches. Tell me against which team you want to lose". Luckily for me, KKR is my 2nd love and it's great if the choice is KKR :)

Batting failed - so how can the captain be blamed. Fielding wasn't top notch - captain has to take a share of the blame.

At least one batsman has to take ownership and "stand there and maul the bowling" - like Yusuf Pathan did for RR.

I do not agree that there are no Yusuf Pathans in the team.I hope he stands up and gets counted in the next match.

It will be too premature to blame the loss on the team selection or crticizing the captain.

We have a good batting line up, but, our players looked over-confident and try to be too innovative/aggressive without even settling down. Had the top order been patient and got a score of 65-70, losing no more than two wickets, we would have got a score of 160+, which was quite defendable. Instead, the batsmen panicked whenever a couple of dot balls came up and threw their wicket away. KKR bowlers just put the ball at the right place and they were gifted with wickets regularly.

The second and most important reason for the defeat was the lack of fire/passion to win. Whether it was batting or bowling, everyone seemed to be just going through the motions, rather, than staying positive and cheering each other.

A couple of changes need to be made and I am sure, Boucher would play the next game instead of Goswami, who needs a bit more confidence before taking the field.

We need a determined display and we don't need to go too far to understand that. KKR are displaying that quality perfectly. Not to forget that they recovered from a situation, worse than ours and went on to win the first game against a formidable DC team. We need displays of that sort.

agree with you rahulnraul except on a few things http://www.royalchallengers.com/fan-club/lets-break-this-down/

our fielding let us down ( Tiwary's runout in particular) that is all..., we'll surely win with a big bang in the following matches for sure..

- just a bad day at batting. in form virat disappointed the most
- inexplicable batting order (read dravid should move up the order)
- defending the small total i think the missed run out chance hurt us the most
- top competition? yes, its always going to be there. kkr bowling is in top form. ishant has somehow struck form. karthik and mathews are bowling well too. it will only get better when bond joins the party.

punjab looks in total disarray, so i have high hopes for the next one!

@ KIckers - White would be joining the team only after March 21st. And I hope we wont end up sitting waiting for White or Taylor or KP to join us to help keep our boat afloat. Might as well fix the boat now itself with the available resources and up the ante when these players join! :)

Hey I feel, its poor team combination resulted in loss. As Rahul told Boucher is in good form why they didn't picked him ? We could have picked Vinay/ Mithun in place of Steyn, both are top performers in domestic cricket, Boucher would have added in place of Steyn. I am worried about Pandey, he is not at all nicking the ball properly. He looks like lost completely. Kumble has to sort out this problem. By the by when White is going to join the team ?

Why do we always suffer these first match blues? Everyone knows what happened in the first match of the first edition of the IPL. We won our first match in the second edition but had a disastrous time with the batting. (RD and Kumble just got us through last time or else it would have been another horrible first match loss)

A few points I would want the team management to notice - I agree we are a few foreign players short - every team is. But why not pick the best when they are available AND in good form? I don't understand the case of not picking Mark Boucher. He's just coming off a brilliant performance in the domestic season and he doesn't get picked. Instead, goswami who was neither good in front of the stumps nor behind it did not help the cause one bit, did it?
Goswami, with all regards to his talent must be great but is not a natural hitter of the ball like Robin or Pandey. When you already have an improviser in Kallis, why play goswami right at the top? He played like this tail ender who's been instructed to go at anything and everything? I'm sorry but that's not the role of an opening batsman in ANY format of the game. It is to setup a platform so that the middle order can build on. Even in T20, that theory works! Apart from a couple of scratchy boundaries, he was of no good. We need a big hitter right at the top who can improvise on the bowling attack when the fielding restrictions are on! So having Robin or Pandey right at the top would help.
Next - Morgan is a gifted T20 player. Rather play him at #3 and give him the time to settle down so that he can explode later on makes more sense than sending him when the scoreboard reads nothing for 3. More pressure mounts on him then and he's not allowed to play his natural game and as a result would automatically succumb to the pressure. RD has to play as a sheet anchor, like Kallis and should stick to #5 - That's his spot from where he can improvise. He can be followed then by Kohli and Boucher who are proven finishers of the game. The latter definitely is!

The bowling seems fine but if Boucher has to be inducted into the team, one of the bowlers - Merwe or Steyn will have to be dropped. That can be done according to the condition of the pitch but I insist on having Steyn in the side ONLY if he plays his role of a quick opening bowler than a first change bowler. We opened with Kallis today! What was Kumble thinking especially when we were in dire need of wickets!
What about Mithun who has supposedly had a great domestic season? It really is a brain twister as to why he was left out?!

As a huge ardent fan of RCB, I really hope we don't rest on our past laurels of coming back from murky situations and instead, pull up our socks now and start rising up the ladder.

Wishing the team and the management a great and successful IPL. We support you full on!

Cheers for the good times that await us!