The Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Anil Kumble, the Kolkata Knight Riders captain Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag of the Delhi DareDevils and the Kings XI Punjab’s Yuvraj Singharrive for the IPL awards ceremony in Mumbai, on Friday. (PTI)

Mumbai: Having failed to reach their second successive final, defending champions Deccan Chargers and last year’s runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) would be gunning for the third Champions League Twenty20 slot as a consolation when they clash in the IPL third place play-off match on Saturday.

The RCB, who were knocked out in the semi-finals by Mumbai Indians, are the favourites due to their consistency in the tournament.

Anil Kumble’s team let Mumbai off the hook when they conceded 77 runs in the last five overs and are aiming to correct that flaw and avoid a repeat.

Batting will also be a concern for RCB as they failed well short of the target.

On the other hand, the bowlers have been their strong point and on a pitch that has been on the slower side over the last two days, they might hold the key to the team’s success.

The Chargers, who saw their five-game winning-run snapped by the Chennai Super Kings in the second emifinal, have more chinks in the armour than their rivals.

Their captain Adam Gilchrist has failed to live up to his reputation of being one of the biggest hitters of the game.

The batting has generally been inconsistent and the line-up has been tinkered with too much to identify a fixed slot for any batsman.

Tirumalasetti Suman and Rohit Sharma have shown flashes of brilliance but their display against Mumbai was disappointing to say the least.

Rohit in particular would do well to finish the tournament on a high note as that would also boost his confidence ahead of his departure to the Caribbean for the ICC World T20.

Pragyan Ojha has played a crucial role in the Chargers’ qualifying into the semi-final but otherwise the bowling has been far from threatening.

But the pitch could be an immediate concern for both the teams, and even more so for the two finalists on Sunday.

Although the DY Patil stadium hosted only two league games, the two match wickets offered significant help for the bowlers.

More importantly, although it had bounce, the slow nature of the pitch meant stroke-making wasn’t easy in the second semi-final.

With the play-off and the final scheduled back to back, the weekend could see the bowlers lord it over the batsmen.

The Chargers took the day off while the RCB had a brief practice session at the MCA ground.

Having lost the real prize, the players would be tested for their motivation levels as well.