Frenzied fans root for RCB to stay on course

Buoyed by two exciting wins, including one here and another away, frenzied fans are looking for a hat-trick of victory by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) over defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) on Wednesday in the IPL-9 season at the Chinnaswamy stadium here.

Though the home team is languishing at sixth place in the points table with eight points from four wins in nine games, the die-hard fans hope RCB keeps winning and stays on the course for a place in play-offs.

"I am still betting on RCB to win as many of the remaining (four) games and make up for the lost matches (five) to qualify for play-offs. Though they have a strong batting line-up, their weak bowling attack and sloppy fielding are a cause for concern as they can't afford to lose a single game to keep their hopes alive to play in semis," said fashion designer M. Venkatesh before the league tie began in the eastern stands.

After losing three consecutive games, including two away and one here, RCB bounced back with two successive wins, including a 1-run thriller against Kings XI Punjab on May 9 and by seven wickets against Pune Rising Supergiants on May 7 here.

"We are not so much bothered about which team wins or loses as long as they play exciting cricket and entertain us as the shorter version of the game (T20) is meant to be unpredictable till the last over or last ball," said couple Rakesh and Veena, who came all the way from Mysuru, about 150 km from here, to watch the match with their son.

--IANS

fb/mr