(Cricket news) Bangalore shook off their rocky start to the season by winning against Mumbai as they inch closer to the playoff positions. Rajasthan on the other hand squandered their chance to go to 4th position as they lost to both DC and SRH. They also did no favours with their run rate and are in desperate need for a victory as they keep their playoff dreams alive.

RCB camp will be happy with Maxwell’s all round contribution but would be hoping the same from their other Aussie Dan Christan to come into his own. Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Devdutt Padikkal have ominous records as all three batsmen loving facing RR. Virat in the last three matches he has played against RR scored – 72*,43 and 72. Mind you, when the last time they faced each other, Padikkal made a wonderful century and shared a record 181 runs stand. One thing RCB need to address is ABD’s batting position, currently he is batting at 5 but they need to get him up the order, if he plays a few deliveries then he can come into a rhythm of his own which can be ominous signs for the oppositions. RCB will again rely on Chahal and Harshal Patel to get important breakthroughs, the Purple cap holder also has an amazing record against RR, picking up 9 wickets in 5 games.

RR’s major concern going into the game is the misfiring middle order as all the onus lies on Sanju Samson to carry the team forward. In the last two matches, even though Samson scored successive fifties the team failed to capitalise on it. RR desperately need runs from Liam Livingstone, Riyan Parag and might also contemplate bringing in David Miller to provide a little more stability to the middle order. The RR camp need to ponder on the decision of bringing in Shreyas Gopal back into the playing XI as he has picked up 14 wickets in 7 matches against RCB, conceding only 6.50 rpo.

Head to head: RCB 11 – 10 RR, last they played together RCB won by 10 wickets after a record breaking stand of 181 between Padikkal and Kohli

Pitch and Weather report: Dubai International Stadium has generally been the better batting venue this season as players will target the shorter boundaries, the pitch also offers something to the pacers. The temperature will be somewhere around 40 degrees and it  might just help the spinners a bit. There is no chance of any rain.

Interesting facts:

• RR spinners have only taken 6 wickets compared to RCB’s 19
• RR have scored 8.92 rpo compared to RCB’s 7.23 rpo in the middle overs this season
• Glenn Maxwell needs 18 runs to complete 7000 T20 runs 
• AB De Villiers has scored 86 runs off 44 balls from Chris Morris’ bowling at a strike rate of 195.4.

Also read: Kohli's RCB looks to build winning momentum against struggling RR

Probable XI for RCB:
1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 Devdutt Paddikal, 3 Srikar Bharat (wk), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Dan Christian, 7 Shahbaz Ahmed, 8 Kyle Jamieson/Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Mohammed Siraj

Probable XI for RR:
1 Evin Lewis, 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 David Miller/Liam Livingstone, 5 Mahipal Lomror, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Chris Morris, 9 Chetan Sakariya, 10 Kartik Tyagi/Jaydev Unadkat, 11 Mustafizur Rahman