Royal Challengers Bangalore, which is undergoing a torrid run in the current edition of IPL, will face a do or die battle to keep slim hopes of making it to the playoffs when they take on formidable Chennai Super Kings who are just a step away from entering the next stage.
RCB survived another blistering attack from Andre Russell on Friday night to win against KKR by 10 runs after skipper Virat Kohli struck a masterly century to take RCB to a challenging 213 for 4. Russell made unbeaten 25-ball 65 but the Kohli’s men survived to win their second match in nine outings. Languishing at the bottom of the points stable, RCB face a near impossible task of winning the remaining five matches to stay in hunt for a play-off berth while CSK is sitting pretty at the top of the table with 14 points from nine matches – winning seven games against two losses.
In the away game RCB met with a humiliating 7-wicket defeat in the hands of Dhoni’s men when they were bundled out for a mere 70. The hosts will again bank of Kohli and AB de Villiers who has been undergoing a patchy phase in this edition of the IPL, while keeper batsman Parthiv Patel has contributed well. Inclusion of Dale Steyn has strengthened the RCB attack while other pacers Navdeep Saini and Mohd Siraj are finding their feet. CSK which faced a reverse against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the previous, in the absence of Dhoni, tie will be looking for a win to ensure their berth in the play-offs. It is still not clear whether Dhoni will be fit to play tomorrow.
Following are the squads:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Parthiv Patel, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Tim Southee, Virat Kohli (c), Umesh Yadav, Moeen Ali, Yuzvendra Chahal, Colin de Grandhomme, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Akshdeep Nath, Milind Kumar, Marcus Stoinis, Navdeep Saini, Shimron Hetmyer, Heinrich Klaasen, Himmat Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Kulwant Khejroliya, Devdutt Padikkal and Prayas Barman.
Chennai Super Kings: Harbhajan Singh, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Karn Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis, Deepak Chahar, Sam Billings, Mohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Dhruv Shorey, Scott Kuggeleijn, Monu Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Chaitanya Bishnoi, N Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad and KM Asif.
