| GEO Sports | | Bangalore win toss and bat against Delhi | Updated at: 1709 PST, Sunday, April 26, 2009
 PORT ELIZABETH: Kevin Pietersen, captain of Bangalore Royal Challengers, has won the toss and decided to bat first against Delhi Daredevils in the first match of today here at St. George’s Park on Sunday.
Bangalore have made three changes in their lineup bringing in the 20-year old left-arm spinner KP Appanna and medium-pacer B Akhil in place of Praveen Kumar and Dravid. There was no reason given for Praveen's exclusion but it was perhaps because of an ankle injury he suffered in the previous game against Kings XI Punjab. Bangalore also left out Jesse Ryder and strengthened their middle-order by including Mark Boucher. Ryder's exclusion means that Jacques Kallis is likely to open with Robin Uthappa, who has neither been able to score big or fast.
Delhi, on the other hand, have made two changes to the eleven that beat Chennai Super Kings. Manoj Tiwary and Avishkar Salvi were rested and they were replaced by Mithun Manhas and the legspinner Amit Mishra, who will partner Daniel Vettori in the spin department.
Delhi: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag (captain), AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mithun Manhas, Daniel Vettori, Dirk Nannes, Amit Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashish Nehra.
Bangalore: Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Kevin Pietersen (captain), Ross Taylor (wk), Mark Boucher, Virat Kohli, B Akhil, R Vinay Kumar, Pankaj Singh, Anil Kumble, KP Appanna. |  |
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