Anil Kumble called correctly, and he went with the ploy that has fetched Bangalore five out of their six wins, choosing to field first. In the seven previous matches where Bangalore have chased, they have won five, and another such result will put them in an excellent position for a semi-final berth. They won the previous game convincingly against Kolkata Knight Riders, but made a couple of changes to that team, bringing in Manish Pandey and left-arm spinner KP Appanna instead of S Sriram and Praveen Kumar.
Deccan, meanwhile, were put in a slightly unfamiliar situation of batting first at this ground for the first time in three games. It's a must-win match for them, and they've had mixed luck in the two previous games here - against Rajasthan Royals exactly a week ago, Rohit Sharma's classy 73 wasn't enough to prevent a heartbreaking two-run loss. A couple of days back, they cruised to a fairly comfortable six-wicket win against Chennai Super Kings, which has kept them in contention for the semi-finals. Deccan made only one change to that side, with Herschelle Gibbs returning and Dwayne Smith sitting out.
The bigger boundaries and the lush outfields probably means posting high scores here might not be as easy as in most other IPL venues - in the first match Rajasthan defended 159, while in the last match here Deccan went past 138 only in the last over. The spinners could also have more to do here, which probably explains Bangalore's decision to include Appanna.
Deccan Chargers 1 Monish Mishra, 2 Adam Gilchrist (capt & wk), 3 T Suman, 4 Herschelle Gibbs, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Rohit Sharma, 7 B Sumanth, 8 Ryan Harris, 9 Harmeet Singh, 10 RP Singh, 11 Pragyan Ojha.
Royal Challengers Bangalore 1 Manish Pandey, 2 Jacques Kallis, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Robin Uthappa (wk), 5 Ross Taylor, 6 Cameron White, 7 Virat Kohli, 8 Vinay Kumar, 9 KP Appanna, 10 Anil Kumble (capt), 11 Dale Steyn.
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