Indian Premier League - IPL / Andrew Hughes / 20 April 2011 /

It's top against almost bottom as Bangalore travel to the east in a bid to get their IPL season back on track at Eden Gardens.

Kolkata
Kolkata are unlikely to change too much so Ryan ten Doeschate will remain on the bench. All rounder Laxmi Shukla may get a game at the expense of Rajat Bhatia

Bangalore
The arrival of Chris Gayle solves one problem as he will form a dream opening partnership with Tillakaratne Dilshan. But it is likely to further weaken the bowling as Johan van der Wath will have to step aside to accommodate the West Indian.

Match Odds
Both teams have glamorous batting orders and mediocre bowling line-ups, but whilst Kolkata have made the most of their bowling resources, particularly at home, Bangalore have leaked runs all over the place and have compounded this problem with some silly tactical gimmicks such as batting Zaheer Khan at three and some truly awful fielding. Even with Gayle on board, we need to see a lot more from the Challengers before we consider backing them at [2.24]

Top Bangalore Batsman
Gayle will be all the rage and is familiar with this surface, but entitled to take a game to get acclimatised and the smart money is on the consistent A B De Villiers at [4.5]

Best Bet

Andrew Hughes says: Back A B De Villiers to top score for Bangalore @ 4.5

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