Battle of survival for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils

BANGALORE: Have Royal Challengers Bangalore recovered adequately from the brutal pasting they got on Sunday night? They were defending 65 runs in four death overs but ended up surrendering it in three!
No team, or set of bowlers, could ever be inured to that kind of an assault and the fact that the team has to again take the field within 48 hours hardly gives it any time to recoup.
The saving grace, though, is that they are playing the game at home and against relative lightweights Delhi Daredevils, who, if anything, have a worse bowling attack.
Delhi, like Bangalore, have struggled. Their batsmen, with the probable exception of JP Duminy, have yet to find worthwhile form.
However, Delhi have it in them to play spoilsport to some of the better-placed teams. No batting brigade that includes Kevin Pietersen, Ross Taylor, Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik, Duminy, among others can be scoffed at.
But the bowling is another issue. It looks so effete it would struggle to protect even a target of 200 on most occasions. Thus, with its batting not firing and bowling resources limited, it is no surprise that Delhi are languishing at the bottom of the table.
RCB, who have dropped their guard at crucial moments this season, like in the match against KKR in the UAE and against Rajasthan on Sunday, are only marginally better. They badly require their big guns, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli, to get among the runs.
Yuvraj Singh's confident showing against RR would have pepped up the team. More of the same would be in order if RCB, who are still in the fray, are to return to their winning ways.
The good news for the rival set of batsmen is that the Chinnaswamy pitch is batsman friendly and the bowlers from either side are not the sort who'd give anybody, except their captains, sleepless nights.
'LOSING NATHAN WAS A BIG BLOW'
BANGALORE: Delhi Daredevils coach Gary Kirsten singled out inconsistency in both batting and bowling as a major reason for the team's plight.
"Our bowling hasn't been on the mark. We haven't been on the mark with bat either, making our performances a little bit inconsistent," said the South African coach.
"We have done some good things on the field but we haven't been able to continue those good things on the field. If you want to put pressure on the opposition then you need to have really good phases in the game, need to dominate the game to cross the line," said the 46-year-old.
Kirsten pointed out that their bowling unit was handicapped by the absence of the injured pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile. "Losing Coulter-Nile was a big blow. His replacement Wayne Parnell has done a fairly reasonable job."