Chennai Super Kings vs Bangalore Royal Challengers Preview, Live Score: IPL 2009 Semi Final

In the second semi final of IPL 2009, Chennai Super Kings will face Bangalore Royal Challengers at the The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on 23 May 2009. Deccan Chargers has already reached the final after defeating Delhi tonight and now, Chennai and Bangalore both are looking to join Deccan in the tournament final. Both sides won each of their earlier meetings in IPL 2009 and are pretty much confident to win the semi final encounter thanks to their recent performance. Chennai and Bangalore reached the semi final after finishing second and third respectively in the preliminary round.

Match: Chennai Super Kings vs Bangalore Royal Challengers, 2nd Semi Final, IPL 2009

Date: 23 May 2009

Time: Local time 16:30; GMT 14:30

Venue: The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa

Live TV: Sony SAT Max

Chennai Batting

Chennai’s batting line up is led by hard-hitter Australian Mathew Hayden who is currently the leading scorer of IPL 2009 with 546 runs at an average of 54.60. However, Hayden is recovering from injury and it is not yet confirmed if he would be able to play the semi final match against Bangalore. If he can not make a come back, then George Bailey or Murali Vijay would partner with Parthiv Patel in the opening slot.

Suresh Raina is another in-form hard hitter of Chennai who now secures the fifth place in the top scorers’ list with 414 runs at 31.84. Chennai’s batting line up also features the batsmen like Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, South African all rounder Albie Morkel, Indian youngster Subramaniam Badrinath and New Zealand’s Jacob Oram.

Chennai Bowling

Chennai’s bowling line up is also very balanced in the presence of world class spinner like Muttiah Muralitharan. Their pace attack features in-from Lakshmipathy Balaji, Manpreet Gony, Morkel, Sudeep Tyagi and left arm pacer Thilan Thushara. Led by Muralitharan, Chennai’s spin attack also features effective left arm spinner Shadab Jakati, who has 12 wickets to his credit in IPL 2009. Occasion spinner Suresh Raina’s tight bowling in the crunch moment has been proven pretty much effective for Chennai.

Probable Squad of Chennai Super Kings

Parthiv Patel, Mathew Hayden/ George Bailey, Raina, Dhoni, Badrinath, Morkel, Oram, Balaji, Muralitharan, Gony and Jakati.

Bangalore Batting

The name that first comes into my mind about Bangalore’s batting line up is none other than Manish Pandey. The 19-year-old scored a thrashing century against Deccan Chargers in the last preliminary round match. No doubt, he has done enough to retain his squad as he capitalized on the chance handed to him. Kallis and Pandey will opener for Bangalore against Chennai, who would be followed by all rounder Roelof van der Merwe, Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, all rounder Virat Kohli and Mark Boucher. With all rounder Kallis, Boucher, and Taylor securing three regular places, it would very tough for Jesse Ryder to make it to the final eleven as the fourth foreign player. However, as both Kallis and van der Merwe are genuine all rounder, I think, Bangalore should play Ryder, who himself is an effective all rounder, in order to strengthen their batting line up. With 337 runs at an average of 30.63, Kallis is the leading scorer of Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Bangalore Bowling

Captain Anil Kumble is the fourth highest wicket taker of IPL 2009 so far with 17 wickets and the leg spinner has best economy rate among the top ten bowlers of the tournament. Their spin attack has the bowlers like Praveen Kumar, Kallis, Balachandra Akhil, Virat Kohli and Vinay Kumar and Ryder. Besides Kumble, Bangalore also has an effective left arm spinner in Roelof van der Merwe.

Probable Squad for Bangalore Royal Challengers

Kallis, Pandey, Ryder, Roelof van der Merwe, Dravid, Taylor, Kohli, Boucher, Kumble, Praveen Kumar and Akhil.

Online Live Score and Updates

You can get the live score and updates of the match from the websites given below:

Cricinfo

Cricket Next

The Times of India

Yahoo Cricket

ipl.co.in

ICC cricket world cup live

24timepass.com

Both sides have similar chances to win the match and I do not see any favorite in the match. I just hope to see an exciting affair between Chennai and BangaloreJohannesburg. What do you think about it? at