Deccan Chargers vs Bangalore Royal Challengers, to be played Sunday 25th May.

Oh dear.   We knew this game had to be coming at some point, like the mother-in-law’s birthday, but you put it to the back of your mind and pretend it’ll just be ... later. 

The two cellar-dwellers face off in a battle that will have great significance to the two organisations involved, but to everyone else will be just a bit Eurovision – it’s happening, but then so is reality TV, and even that’ll be more interesting.

The lack of 20/20 talent on display, in terms of ability to win matches, may dilute the anticipation factor but to be fair, you’re still looking at some of the best players in the world...

Deccan boast Adam Gilchrist up top, he is as much fun to watch as anyone in the world once he’s rolling - which he’s failed to do enough to keep Deccan competitive. 

Herschelle Gibbs must be a bit bored of the competition by now, except for the paycheques, and his mind may be drifting to the England test series later this summer, but that’s the beauty of 20/20 – total focus is one thing, but 30 minutes biffing may be all that’s required.

Rao and Sharma have helped out in the middle order, while Shahad Afridi has batted like a man seeing the ball like a pea (much like myself this season) with a pitiful 7 dismissals from 33 deliveries - it’s a good job his bowling has been fairly effective.

Speaking of bowling, Deccan have been let down by theirs, and any combination of Singh, Ohja, Vijaykumar, Afridi and Zoysa is unlikely to be any more effective than earlier in the tournament.

Bangalore are a tad ahead in the race to avoid the wooden spoon, having turned over Chennai in unlikely circumstances, and are the inverse of Deccan in that their batting has woefully underperformed while their bowling has been effective at times, as in the dramatic Chennai game.  

They should still be on a high after restricting the Super Kings powerhouse to 112 when chasing 126, and will hope for a similarly committed display for this game.

Key that day were South African paceman Dale Steyn and a resurgent display from Anil Kumble.  All their bowlers were effective to be honest, and more worthy work from Kumar, Akhil and the rest will put the squeeze on the Chargers.

The Bangalore batting has looked better towards the end of the IPL than the start, with new man Goswami coming through effectively.   This may take a little pressure off the very disappointing Kallis and Kohli.   Rahul Dravid has shone more than most expected in 20/20, while Misbah-ul-haq has shown flashes of his fast scoring ability.  Mark Boucher has also played well at times, but often in picking up runs in a lost cause.

Overall, two teams that have simply not performed.   Our preference is clearly for Bangalore, as they have shown a little form and if Steyn can shoot out Gilchrist early, they will have a great chance of winning and trying to salvage a little pride.  

The betting market amazingly sees Deccan as favourite, surely with the Gilchrist factor as a key element, so we’ll be going big on Bangalore.   We’ll live with it if Gilchrist beats Bangalore more or less on his own, but if the Aussie keeper fails, Bangalore would in our view be a red hot favourite.

Paul Sculpher.