It will be a night of Royalty in the Indian Premier League as the Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore Royal Challengers, both coming off clinical wins in their last outings, face up to each other in a double header at Centurion on Thursday in Season 2009 of the Indian Premier League (IPL). With the teams intent on staying in the top half of the table, expect the competition to really heat up. Both sides will be looking to give their all in the game tomorrow, making for an interesting spectacle. Only the Kolkata Knight Riders in last place, with a solitary win, are out of the running for a semi-final spot and the fortunes of all remaining seven teams are firmly in their own hands. The Royal Challengers Bangalore dusted off the defending champs the Rajasthan Royals on the first day of Season 2009 in the DLF Indian Premier League in Cape Town, with leg-spinner Anil Kumble returning what are still the best figures in this year's competition - five wickets for five runs. Veteran Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble has taken over the captaincy of the Royal Challengers Bangalore since Kevin Pietersen returned home for the test series against the West Indies, and the team has won three in a row, the first of those triumphs having come against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Durban in Pietersen's "farewell" game a week ago. By Thursday the Royal Challengers Bangalore will have had a relatively long break of four days, given the congested nature of the programme. Their last fixture was against the Mumbai Indians in Johannesburg, when they cruised home by nine wickets with 11 balls to spare, chasing 150. On that occasion Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa hit half-centuries, after debutant seamer Dillon du Preez pocketed the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, J P Duminy and Ajinkya Rahane for 32 runs. It was the first time the Royal Challengers Bangalore had gone with a full quota of four South Africans for their foreign-player contingent, and by the dictum of "never change a winning team", Kallis, Du Preez, Mark Boucher and Roelof van der Merwe should all be in the starting line-up for Thursday. After Sunday's victory Kumble said things were starting to come together nicely for his team. "We've picked up some great momentum and it is important that we keep that momentum going now to try and qualify for the semi-finals."Praising the steady batting of Kallis and Uthappa, he added: "Their partnership was a joy to behold". The Rajasthan Royals on the other hand had a disastrous start to Season 2009 of the DLF IPL, but have recovered well and on Tuesday with a tournament-high score of 211-4, were far too good for the Kings XI Punjab, sailing to a 78-run victory in Durban. The best news from that contest was that opener Graeme Smith hit 77 and seemed to have found his touch. "It's about time," Smith quipped afterwards. "I've been a bit tentative at times, so it was nice to get in and build my confidence. It's a crucial time of the competition now, so we need to get our big players in form. It was a real clinical performance from the team," he said of the win against the Kings XI Punjab. The Rajasthan Royals start Thursday's match in fourth spot on nine points from eight games, with the Royal Challengers Bangalore one spot behind them on eight points, also from eight games. The table is so closely packed that a victory for either side could see them climb to top spot. This is also likely to be the last game that the Rajasthan Royals will be without the services of last year's Man of the Tournament Australian Shane Watson, who will be back from international duty. They'll be hoping to welcome him at the same position at which he left...the top of the league.
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