(Cricket news) With five wins and five losses, RCB’s 2022 IPL season has been a mirror image of some of their past seasons, they are not being able to find that level of consistency that is required for them to qualify for the playoffs. On the other hand CSK are going through a change in their set up as MS Dhoni is back at the helm leading his side again as they have to treat every match as a do or die match, if they are to qualify for the playoffs.
CSK have found a glimmer of hope in the last couple of matches as the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway have found form. Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad stitched a massive opening stand of 182 which meant that CSK's tried and tested template of building a platform in the Powerplay with 'anchor-batters' and then pressing the accelerator in death overs. In the bowling department as left-arm pace bowler, Mukesh Chowdhary has mixed up his short deliveries and also generated a hint of swing up front and now has 11 wickets in this year's tournament. For CSK, Ravindra Jadeja will be the key man as he has accounted for the wickets of Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli 7, 3 and 3 times respectively in the IPL. In the last match, Ravindra Jadeja bowled in tandem with Sri Lankan spinner Maheesh Theekshana in the middle overs and conceded only 15 runs from his 18 balls against Sunrisers which could be crucial to stop the free flowing RCB batters.
RCB are in a spot of bother after a very good start to the season as Faf Du Plessis’ side risk losing out a spot in the top 4. RCB are in the middle of the table, having gone winless in the last 14 days. Their bowling is the only respite in the team as the likes of Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood and Mohammed Siraj are among the wickets, but their batting needs to improve. Captain Faf du Plessis has not found his magic touch of last season with 184 of his 278 runs coming in just two innings other than that he has been dismissed for single-digits but for the RCB as well as Indian fans, the biggest positive in the last match was that Virat Kohli was back amongst the runs. Harshal Patel will be the key the man as he has found some success against the likes of MS Dhoni (dismissed him twice) and Ambati Rayudu (dismissed him five times) in the IPL
Pitch and weather report: The MCA Pune pitch has offered some bounce early on but if batter can negate the early swing, then batting becomes easy like we saw in the last match. CSK and SRH combined to score 391 runs in the last match played here. The temperature is going to hover around 29 degrees as dew won’t play a factor in the second innings because of the less humidity.
Interesting facts:
- Jadeja is the leading wicket-taker against RCB in the history of IPL with 26 scalps in 29 games.
- Dhoni has hit 46 sixes against Royal Challengers
- Faf du Plessis has been dismissed by pacers eight times in his ten matches this IPL.
- Kohli has scored 949 runs against CSK in the IPL, the most against an opposition for him
- This season both the half centuries hit by Ruturaj Gaikwad have been at his home ground in Pune.
- RCB have been the best bowling side in the middle overs in this IPL – 34 wickets at an average of 18.53
Also read: Punjab Kings beat Gujarat Titans by 8 wickets (IPL)
Probable XI for CSK:
1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Moeen Ali/Dwayne Bravo/Mitchell Santner, 8 Dwaine Pretorius, 9 Mahesh Theekshana, 10 Simarjeet Singh, 11 Mukesh Choudhary
Probable XI for RCB:
1 Faf du Plessis (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rajat Patidar, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Shahbaz Ahmed, 6 Mahipal Lomror, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Josh Hazlewood
