(Cricket news) RCB will hope that this time they put up a better performance and forget about the horror show they produced last match against SRH. It also left them with the worst Net-Run-Rate among the teams around them – a factor that could prove decisive in the run-in. On the other hand , RR have been banking heavily on their two star players in Jos Butler and Yuzvendra Chahal to win them matches.
RCB endured one of their heaviest defeats against SRH last time out and will be hoping that they will bounce back from that crushing defeat. In terms of batting the RCB management will be hoping that Virat Kohli finds his batting mojo back after two back to back ducks as Anuj Rawat hasn't quite set the batting charts on fire for his new team, and is in danger of losing his place. The one thing that has been their recipe to success is their lower middle order which has flourished in pressure situations and often bailed their team out from the clutches of defeat. The battle between Dinesh Karthik and Chahal will be one to watch as the leg spinner has dismissed him thrice in nine innings, with Karthik scoring at a strike rate of only 83. In terms of bowling, Wanindu Hasaranga will be the key as he has dismissed Sanju Samson four times in five innings and will be an obvious plan of attack against the Royals captain.
For RR in the batting department it has been the Jos Butler show, he has scored 491 runs in 7 matches including 3 centuries, at this rate he is well on course to break Virat Kohli’s historical 2016 season where he scored 4 hundreds and scored over 900+ runs. Shimron Hetmyer and Sanju Samson have also been in good form as they have been finishing the innings really well. In the bowling department, despite having Yuzvendra Chahal in flying form, the Royals have conceded 192, 210 and 207 in their last three games, which could be a cause of concern for the RR management. We saw in the last match how Marco Jansen caused havoc in the RCB batting lineup, the same way RR can throw Trent Boult and Obed McCoy to poke at their opposition's insecurities.
Pitch and weather report: The MCA Pune pitch has been brilliant for batting but the venue will be used after a long time as this might just restart the trend of winning the toss and bowling first. Pacers will get some assistance in the powerplay and the spinners will play a massive role in the middle overs. The temperature is going to hover around 28 degrees as there is no chance of rain.
Interesting facts:
- Wanindu Hasaranga has completed his full quota of overs only once in the last four matches
- Buttler is 58 runs ahead of where Kohli was in the 2016 season when he scored the record-setting 973 runs.
- Among batters with more than 200 runs in the league, only Dinesh Karthik (200) and Liam Livingstone (182.26) have a higher strike-rate than Shimron Hetmyer 179.20
- Faf du Plessis' teams have won 70% of matches where he has made 30 or more.
Also read: Punjab Kings PBKS beat Chennai Super Kings by 11 runs
Probable XI for RCB:
1 Faf du Plessis (capt), 2 Anuj Rawat/Rajat Patidar, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Shahbaz Ahmed, 6 Suyash Prabhudessai, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Josh Hazlewood
Probable XI for RR:
1 Jos Buttler, 2 Devdutt Padikkal, 3 Sanju Samson (capt, wk), 4 Shimron Hetmyer, 5 Karun Nair, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Obed McCoy, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
