After losing three consecutive matches in a row, the Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to end that woeful run of form against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the former’s first home game return in an IPL encounter on Sunday.
After losing three consecutive matches in a row, the Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to end that woeful run of form against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the former’s first home game return in an IPL encounter on Sunday. Virat Kohli and his merry men will quickly have to forget their past woes and start afresh as they gear up to take full advantage of home conditions at the Chinnaswamy Stadium when they play their first match of the India leg.
Both the sides are stuck on four points each but it’s the home side that is placed above in the points-table because of a better run-rate. Bangalore started off on a winning note in their first two matches even without the injured batsman West Indian Chris Gayle, but since then, RCB have fallen flat. In order to revive the fortunes a lot will be revolving around the likes of Gayle, Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and AB de Villiers.
In the five games RCB have played so far, they have not fired as expected. The RCB bowling attack looks a balanced one but in the last three games they have looked out of order. Young spinner, Yuzvendra Chahal has been the surprise package amongst the bowling lot. He has picked up wickets in every match and has seven from five games.
Hyderabad will go into the match on a high with a win in their last game against the Mumbai Indians. Even though they have two wins out of the possible five, Dhawan’s men are in a precarious position in the IPL league table. They have seen just two batsmen – Aaron Finch and David Warner who have fired on all cylinders and though Indian rookie, Lokesh Rahul came out good with 46 off 40 balls in Hyderabad’s last match against Mumbai; Hyderabad are just not too good.
The middle-order, with the likes of Venugopal Rao and Darren Sammy have not fired yet and need to play vital roles.
Pace spearheads Dale Steyn and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been economical so far, while leg-spinners Amit Mishra and Karn Sharma have also been decent. But the bowlers would want their batsmen to put up some considerable runs on board, so that they have something to defend against RCB.
The Teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (c), Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nic Maddinson, Varun Aaron, Vijay, Sachin Rana, Yogesh Takawale, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Tanmay Mishra.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Dale Steyn, David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Brendan Taylor, Moises Henriques, Venugopala Rao, Jason Holder, S Aniruddha, Manprit Juneja, KL Rahul, Amit Paunikar, Naman Ojha, Ricky Bhui, Ashish Reddy, Chama Milind, Parveez Rasool, Prashanth Parameshwaran, Karn Sharma.
