(Cricket news) Royal Challenger Bangalore will be hoping to make a late flourish for the top two spots in the table as SRH are looking to play spoil sports for RCB’s ambitions. For Hyderabad it has been a season to forget as they have conjured up only 4 points, nothing worked for SRH this season and will be hoping to play for the fans with some pride.

RCB already qualified for the playoffs and will be tempted to give some opportunities to test out their bench strength but the possibility of finishing in the top two will most likely result in them picking their strongest playing XI. Glenn Maxwell has probably been the MVP of this season, scoring important runs as well as picking up crucial wickets with his bowling has provided the much needed impetus to finally challenge for the IPL trophy after a long time. Same can be said for Chahal who’s showing the selectors what they are missing out on as he flourishes on these slow turning tracks. The only bit of concern going ahead in the tournament is the form of Mohammed Siraj as he has only picked up a solitary wicket in the UAE leg, there might be a possibility that the RCB camp go in for Navdeep Saini.

SRH are already out of the tournament and will be looking to give opportunities to their fringe players. This season, SRH’s achilles heel has been their batting with only Kane Williamson averaging 40 plus while none of the other batsmen have scored at a strike rate of 120. Sandeep Sharma might be brought back into the line up considering he has dismissed Kohli seven times in IPL, but in the last match Umar Malik looked like a real find and might get one more game to showcase his talent. Rashid Khan has a phenomenal record against AB de Villiers as he has dismissed him three times in six innings scoring just 38 runs in the process.

Head to head: RCB 8 – 10 SRH, the last time they played RCB won by 6 runs as Glenn Maxwell was the deciding factor in the match

Pitch and weather report: MS Dhoni last match stated that dew plays an integral part in Abu Dhabi so captains winning the toss will prefer to bowl first, again the slower bowlers will be crucial on how the match pans out. The temperature will hover around 28-30 degrees as there is a 10% chance of precipitation but it is unlikely to rain.

Interesting facts:

• RCB still have to take a wicket in the powerplay during the second half of the season
• SRH in total have used 24 players in this years IPL 
• RCB are just victory away from 100 wins in IPL
• Glenn Maxwell has hit 15 sixes against spinners in this years IPL
• Glenn Maxwell is also 88 runs away from making 2000 runs in the IPL

Also read :IPL: Qualification scenario for the IPL 2021 playoffs

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 George Garton/Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Mohammed Siraj/ Navdeep Saini

Probable XI for SRH:

1 Jason Roy, 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Priyam Garg, 5 Abhishek Sharma, 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Jason Holder, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Siddarth Kaul/Sandeep Sharma, 11 Umran Malik