Daijiworld Media Network

Mumbai, May 9: It's time for the big clash - Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore. It's quite surprising that this is the first time these 2 big guns are facing in this tournament, but well, that's the way the schedule goes. Every game is important for every side at this point of the tournament as the race to the play offs gets more and more interesting. Gayle and AB de Villiers vs Malinga, Tendulkar vs Muralitharan.. there are a lot of battles to watch out for.

Royal Challengers Bangalore have won the toss and elected to field

Kohli: Love this stadium. Always enjoyed cricket at this ground, the atmosphere is brilliant. It's a challenge and a learning curve for me to captain a side with so many experienced players. Playing in Mumbai against Mumbai is always big. We'll just look to execute our plans and play well. Looks like there is something on the wicket early on and our fast bowlers will look to exploit that. Every game is a must win game for us, especially playing against a strong team like Mumbai. Loving the captaincy, I'm really enjoying it. Tiwary comes in for Pathan. Vinay returns. Gayle, Muralitharan, Dilshan and de Villiers are the foreigners.

Harbhajan: We would like to concentrate on good cricket and results will follow. We have been playing terrific cricket in the last week and we'll look to continue. We have to be there and do our best, we've been fighting till the last ball in our games and that's the way T20 goes. The wicket looks a bit damp, but I'm sure it will play well. Both the teams are good enough to win, may the best team win. Franklin, Pollard, Malinga and Smith are the foreigners. You can call the side Mumbai West Indians.
 
Dilshan: Everything is going well. We have a lot of confidence after the last match and we have to carry it into today's game. I remember 1 year ago we played the World Cup finals here, there was a fantastic crowd that day. Malinga is a brilliant bowler and I have to face him, it will be a good fight with him, let's see who wins today. AB de Villiers is fantastic. The way he played against one of the best fast bowlers - Steyn - was unbelievable, I haven't seen something like that. Great to have guys like de Villiers and Gayle in the dressing room.

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers(w), Saurabh Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Syed Mohammad Jamaluddin, Vinay Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Harshal Patel, Muttiah Muralitharan

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Sachin Tendulkar, James Franklin, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik(w), Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Smith, Harbhajan Singh(c), Lasith Malinga, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha