The fight for places in the middle of the league is heating up as the 2009 season of the IPL moves towards its second half. The increased competition for semi-final berths is largely due to Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore recovering from poor starts in the tournament. Bangalore have strung together two consecutive victories, after four defeats in a row, but their push for a hat-trick of wins will be against tough opposition. The Mumbai Indians are currently third in the tournament with three wins out of six games (one washout). Bangalore have three out of seven matches and a victory at the Wanderers will take them into the top half of the league.

Teams (probable)

Bangalore 1 Robin Uthappa, 2 Sreevats Goswami, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Rajesh Bishnoi, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Roelof van der Merwe, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Anil Kumble (capt), 10 Dale Steyn, 11 KP Appanna

Mumbai 1 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 JP Duminy, 5 Abhishek Nayar, 6 Graham Napier/ Dwayne Bravo, 7 Saurabh Tiwary, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Pinah Shah (wk), 11 Lasith Malinga 

Timings

Start time 16:45, 14:45 GMT, 20:15 IST

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