The Royal Challengers Bangalore visit Chennai’s home ground- the MCA stadium in Pune to mark the 35th match of the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League.
After Chennai’s defeat in their previous encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders, it is evident that even the mighty Chennai are not quite invincible in the tournament and they too have a few issues in their team. However, signs are far from alarming. CSK are most likely to feature in the play offs and are even a strong contender to finish in the Top 2 in the league stage. Till now CSK have 6 wins and 3 losses and a win here will get them back on the top of the table and closer to that spot in the final four.
RCB on the other hand are at the bottom half of the table and would not like to lose a game at this stage of the tournament. RCB would be happy that even without AB de Villiers they were able to win easily. The biggest positive, however, was that their death bowling came to the party finally. Tim Southee and Mohammad Siraj at the death overs against the Mumbai Indians were fantastic and RCB would expect such performances from their bowlers.
AB de Villiers makes a comeback in this match and Parthiv Patel too shall come in as a wicket keeper since Quinton de Kock is not available for selection. This also settles the RCB batting order chaos where they had a problem of plenty of openers. Parthiv and Brendon can open followed by Virat and ABD and the batting order looks good on paper.
CSK on the other hand would look to strengthen their bowling in this match and work on their fielding as there were many lapses in the field the other day against Kolkata Knight Riders. Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, shane Watson and MS Dhoni are batsmen to watch out for in this game for CSK. As far as bowling is concerned, Lungi Ngidi has been doing a good job for the team, while Shardul Thakur and spinners will fancy their chances with the ball. Dwayne Bravo has been leaking a few too many runs and he might try and work on that area.
AB and Virat are showstoppers in the RCB batting unit and even though it may have stars like Brendon in it, the duo forms the backbone of the batting unit. Umesh at the top and Tim and Siraj at the death ], while the wrist spin of Yuzvendra Chahal in the middle overs seems like the way to go forward for captain Virat Kohli.
Let the battle between the two heavyweights begin. Broadcast starts at 16:00 Hours (IST).
