After a highly unsuccessful first half of the season, Royal Challengers Bangalore have made a stunning comeback over the past few weeks. The team has won 5 away matches and climbed to 5th place, keeping their qualification hopes alive.
A big win here will allow them to overtake teams like CSK and DC, whose NRR is not the best.
Leading the charge is the indomitable Virat Kohli. He is the top scorer this season and has scored 3 half-centuries in the last 5 matches. More importantly, his strike rate is 155.16 for the entire tournament, and he has hit 33 sixes!
The opening partnership of Kohli and Faf du Plessis is likely to set the tone for a big score. The middle order has been somewhat shaky after Will Jacks returned to England. However, his departure opens up the opportunity for Glenn Maxwell to step in and prove his worth, especially since his form this season has not been the best.
Is there a better big-match player than Glenn Maxwell who could step up for RCB right now? We don’t think so.
Rajat Patidar has played a couple of brilliant innings, while Cameron Green and Dinesh Karthik have often been invaluable as finishers. The RCB lineup is living up to its reputation, and we think it is now much stronger than the CSK lineup.
Mohammed Siraj is peaking at just the right time, and his opening spell with Yash Dayal will be crucial to keeping the opposition in check. What the team lacks is a quality spin attack, which could lead to conceding runs during the middle overs.
Cam Green, Glenn Maxwell, and Swapnil Singh can be used to give Faf du Plessis some flexibility in his bowling attack. Lockie Ferguson is currently conceding runs at a rate of 10.52 per over. He needs to come up with something special in this decisive match.
This season has been somewhat mixed for the reigning champions. CSK has only won 7 out of 13 matches so far. While a win here will almost certainly take them to the next stage, if CSK loses here, much will depend on the margin of defeat and some other results.
Ruturaj Gaikwad has been leading his team from the front. He is the top scorer for CSK, averaging 58.30 runs after 13 innings. He, along with Shivam Dube, will be key players with the bat for the team. Although CSK has other quality batters, including Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Ravindra Jadeja, and Sameer Rizvi, their form has been inconsistent.
With Moeen Ali likely to leave the team for international duties, Mitchell Santner might return to the middle order.
It’s important to remember that RCB’s bowling lineup isn’t very strong. CSK has a good chance to turn things around in this match.
Simarjeet Singh has proven to be a valuable asset for the team, having taken 5 wickets in 3 games. He will join Tushar Deshpande and Shardul Thakur in the pace attack, while Maheesh Theekshana and Jadeja are likely to feature in the spin attack.
At this point, CSK has managed to maximize their bowling resources and get more out of them than we expected.
Nevertheless, we can expect a tight contest between the two teams.
Place your bet on the Royal Challengers Bangalore to win with odds of 1.72
