11 p.m. The match has been officially called off. One point each to RCB and CSK. So both the teams are now with nine points, which takes Chennai to number three and Bangalore to number four on the points table.
10:45 p.m. The rain is not relenting, which means, in all likelihood, the match is going to be abandoned. No official word yet, though.
10:15 p.m. As the ground staff started taking some of the covers off, the drizzle became more intense. Some of the spectators have started leaving as well. All in all, not much chances of match commencing.
9:50 p.m. If anything, the rain has just got heavier here in Bangalore. Looking rather bleak.
9:20 p.m. Rain continues to lash the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and the covers are firmly in place. Not looking promising for a start at least in the next hour. So if the game starts, it's bound to be a shortened affair now.
8:50 p.m. And it has started drizzling again.
8:40 p.m. RCB win the toss and are bowling. Surprise, surprise! Virat Kohli is captaining Bangalore as their regular skipper, Daniel Vettori, is out with a niggle and has been replaced by Andrew McDonald.
For Chennai, Albie Morkel is back into the XI after returning from South Africa and has replaced the Australian Doug Bollinger.
So it can billed as a match between the current Indian captain and the future one.
Playing XIs:
Royal Challengers Bangalore Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli (capt), AB de Villiers (wk), Mayank Agarwal, Saurabh Tiwary, Andrew McDonald, Vinay Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Harshal Patel, KP Appanna
Chennai Super Kings: S Badrinath, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Albie Morkel, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Nuwan Kulasekara, Yo Mahesh
8:35 p.m. Toss in another five minutes.
8:30 p.m. No word yet from the ground, and the longer it takes for the umpires to inspect the more it is likely to delay the start. But the players are out practising, which is an encouraging sign that it's not that damp underneath.
8:15 p.m. Umpires are out inspecting the pitch and the outfield. Should there be no more rain, we should have a start soon.
7:45 p.m. Slightly dampening news. The toss has been delayed, though not by a downpour, like in Kolkata yesterday, but by drizzle.
7:15 p.m. The fifth season of the Indian Premier League is approaching its halfway mark, and we are back here in Bangalore, where the Royal Challengers Bangalore are hosting the defending champions Chennai Super Kings.
The last time these two teams met, in the first leg of IPL 5 in Chennai, we witnessed a run-fest where 413 runs were scored in the day, with Chennai chasing down Bangalore's mammoth 205 off the last ball of the match to win by five wickets.
That was Match 13 and this is Match 34 of the season. Since that run-heavy day at the Chepauk, the two teams have hit ascendancy to label this match as the battle of the equals.
A slight concern is the weather here in Bangalore, which has been cloudy, and it has been drizzling off and on in the past 24 hours. Hope the toss is not delayed.
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