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Journalism of Courage
Despite being a team that boasts of one of the finest line-ups in the Indian Premier League,Royal Challengers Bangalore are in a familiar position once again a string of four losses giving them an uphill climb that makes winning mandatory from now on.
The two Indian legends in the Royal Challengers,Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid,are unanimous in their analysis of team performance over the last few games its the bowling that has been a let-down.
Both players admitted that the Challengers have to put together a winning bowling combination on Saturday to outclass a resurgent Kolkata Knight Riders,who are already in the midst of a late surge towards a semi-final slot.
Kumble has stuck to what is widely seen as a rigid bowling plan going in with five mainline bowlers and sticking doggedly by them against all batting opposition. At the end of the day it is about the execution of your skills. If your skill is to hit the ball or bowl the ball in a particular area,you need to be able to do it. We have to do it from now, Rahul Dravid said in the build-up to Saturdays clash with the Knight Riders.
We were in a similar position last year as well where we had to win all our matches. It is no different this year. The team knows very well what it has to do, captain Kumble said. We have not been consistent in the last three or four games but we cant sit and brood,we have to hope the team that is selected will deliver, Kumble said.
We have a pretty explosive batting line-up that bats down to seven. We have an all-rounder who bats in the top six. We have five international bowlers. But in 20-20 you can have all this but you need to perform over 40 overs, Rahul Dravid said. I think as a batting unit I am quite happy the way things are shaping up, he said citing the performances of Kallis,Manish Pandey,Robin Uthappa,Virat Kohli,Ross Taylor and Cameron White.
KKR are going into the game with Sourav Ganguly having recovered from a niggle and in-form off-spinner Murali Kartik also available.
