It is the battle of the South with the Deccan Chargers taking on the Bangalore Royal Challengers in their second encounter of IPL Season 2 and while the performance of the two teams will be keenly witnessed, the twin factors of rain and pitch seem toe be the taking points of this T20 fest so far. It will be interesting to see how the Newlands track will play out, but expect the team that wins the toss almost certainly to bat first. Chasing under lights right now seems to be a bit of a bogey in South Africa that most sides wish to steer clear of.

With Bangalore dishing out and the taking a drubbing in its two games, at this point it seems pretty hard to understand how good this team really is. Their last performance against Chennai was a lot like the ‘Test team stuck playing IPL’ situation we saw in the inaugural tournament and if your two main batting stars in a 20-20 contest are Kallis and Dravid, you are sure neck deep in trouble. At this point Bangalore look like stuck in the first gear. The Chargers on the other hand looked electrifying against a mediocre Kolkata and with their rejuvenated approach and Gibbs in scorching hot form; they will be hard to beat.

Unless this is another real sticky wicket like the one Bangalore trounced Rajasthan on and until the Chargers play some poor shots, it is hard to see at this point how any other prospect except a Deccan triumph. Watch out once again for RP Singh who seems to become RP Swing every time he lands in South Africa!

Prediction: Chargers should outclass Challengers here.