Pune, May 5: Royal Challengers Bangalore will begin an array of away matches on Saturday (May 5) and their immediate opponent is the formidable Chennai Super Kings.
Royal Challengers Bangalore might be coming off a win over Mumbai Indians and even amidst that victory, the Virat Kohli-led team has lot to ponder over. In the absence of AB de Villiers, who suffered a bout of viral fever ahead of last week’s match against the Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore have struggled to add power to their game.
And that could prove fatal against Chennai Super Kings here at the Maharashtra State Cricket Association stadium here. With the pitch still a bit unknown commodity, the team winning toss would be keen to let the opposition bat first and chase whatever total put on board and both the team are perfectly capable of that.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore were far too dependent on Kohli to take the fight into the opposition camp. The Royal Challengers will require some more runs and consistency from the likes of Quinton de Kock, Manan Vohra, Brendon McCullum and Mandeep Singh.
Of course, the bowlers produced a vastly improved show under the fiery Umesh Yadav and accurate Tim Southee. But the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers will have to ensure that the effort was not just an aberration. And against the Chennai Super Kings in their own den – adopted or natural – they are bound to face a stern test.
CSK has had a fine run in this IPL evidenced by their position as one of the major players in the points table so far along with Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab. But that has cleverly masked some vulnerabilities.
Even with someone as experienced as Dwayne Bravo in their ranks, the CSK bowling at the backend of the innings has not been up to the scratch. In the last two matches against Delhi Daredevils and Knight Riders they offered absolute tripe in the death overs.
The MS Dhoni vs Virat Kohli theme – used generously during their first match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium – is a rather churlish one. The match is between RCB – struggling to meet their potential and CSK – punching above their might despite certain handicaps.
Teams (from): Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (Captain), Quinton de Kock, Brendon McCullum, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Chris Woakes, Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Colin de Grandhomme, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Mohammed Siraj, Corey Anderson, Parthiv Patel, Tim Southee.
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (C), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan, David Willey.