Nagpur: On a Nagpur pitch that has remained the same for the past three games, Anil Kumble won the toss and has decided to field first.
Speaking to Mike Haysman, he said, “The pitch is different from that in Bangalore. We have been performing well, especially in our bowling.” On being asked whether they have an embarrassment of riches in the batting department, the wily Kumble smiled and said that it’s important that the boys played well. “It’s a good wicket, and our strength lies in chasing, so we hope to continue doing the same,” he said.
For the Royal Challengers Bangalore, S Sriram and Praveen Kumar have been rested while Manish Pandey and KP Appanna will be playing
Adam Gilchrist was nonchalant about the toss. “The pitch has a lot of moisture and it’s pretty much the same wicket [as on the previous three occasions]. It’s quite slow and tough for the batsmen and the outfield is slower and the ground is bigger compared to the one in Bangalore, but we hope to do well,” he said to Sunil Gavaskar. He added that their net run-rate has been on the slower side for quite some time in the tournament, but he his side were hoping to turn it around at this stage.
“We can’t always follow what the numbers say, but we need to improve on our opening partnership and we’ve identified it as a key area where we can improve, so we hope to do it today,” he said.
The Deccan Chargers have brought in Herschelle Gibbs for Dwayne Smith.
Playing XIs
Deccan Chargers
Adam Gilchrist (c & wk), Mohnish Mishra, Rohit Sharma, T Suman, Andrew Symonds, Bodapati Sumanth, Herschelle Gibbs, Harmeet Singh, Pragyan Ojha, RP Singh, Ryan Harris
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Anil Kumble (c), Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey, Cameron White, Robin Uthappa (wk), Ross Taylor, Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid, R Vinay Kumar, KP Appanna, Dale Steyn
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