Bangalore. Desperate for a place in the playoffs, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) know what they need to do to win the final league match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Sunday against Gujarat Titans.
Virat Kohli is back to his best form while skipper Faf du Plessis leads the way with over 600 runs so far. RCB will be hoping for a good start from both their openers in this do-or-die match. RCB’s team is ranked fourth ahead of Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals due to better net run rate. These three teams have 14 points. Mumbai face Sunrisers Hyderabad in another match and have a chance to reach 16 points like RCB.
RCB will have the advantage of playing at their home ground and will know the result of the afternoon match between Mumbai and Sunrisers by then. The possibility of playing in will be almost eliminated. Under the leadership of Hardik Pandya, Gujarat has performed brilliantly so far and his team remains ahead in the race to win the title for the second year in a row.Gujarat team has secured its first place in the league stage with 18 points from 13 matches.
Both RCB and Gujarat Titans will enter this match after registering big wins. While Gujarat defeated Sunrisers by 34 runs, RCB won against Sunrisers by eight wickets. Kohli scored a century in this match which was his 6th century overall in IPL. Kohli and his opening partner Du Plessis performed brilliantly in that match and the team will try to take inspiration from it. But it will not be easy against Gujarat whose team Full of confidence. It will be interesting to see how Kohli, Duplessis and Glenn Maxwell fare against this strong team.
The biggest concern for RCB is over-reliance on Kohli, Duplessis and Maxwell. If the Gujarat team is successful in taking early wickets, RCB’s difficulties may increase. In the bowling, Mohammad Siraj and Wayne Parnell are playing a good role for RCB, but they are facing the best form of Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha, David. Miller, Rahul Tewatia and captain Pandya will be there. With the presence of experienced Mohammed Shami, Rashid Khan and Mohit Sharma, the attack of Gujarat Titans is very strong. As far as the weather is concerned, there is a possibility of rain which is good news for RCB. Cannot be considered.
The team is as follows:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (captain), Akash Deep, Finn Allen, Anuj Rawat, Avinash Singh, Manoj Bhandge, Michael Bracewell, Vanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Siddharth Kaul, Virat Kohli, Mahipal Lomaror, Glenn Maxwell, Mohd. Siraj, Wayne Parnell, Harshal Patel, Suyesh Prabhudesai, Rajan Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Karn Sharma, Himanshu Sharma, Sonu Yadav, Vijaykumar Vaishak, Kedar Jadhav.
Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (captain), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudarshan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzari Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande. , Jayant Yadav, R. Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmed, Dasun Shanaka, Odeon Smith, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Joshua Little and Mohit Sharma.
The match will start at 7.30 pm IST.