BENGALURU: Being at the receiving end and languishing at the bottom of the table, thrice finalists RCB is hoping to encash on the home advantage and win against holders Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL league tie here tomorrow.
The Virat Kohli’s team is facing a formidable opposition and is in an unenviable position winning just two out of seven games played so far. They have a daunting task of winning six of the seven matches they still have to make it to the knockout stage.
The local outfit crashed to a humiliating defeat last night, after being bundled out for a record lowest 49 in less than 10 overs against Kolkata Knight Riders. This happened despite the team boasting of a very strong batting line-up having the likes of AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle.
RCB and SRH met in last season’s final, where SRH won to claim the maiden title. The two teams have played 14 times against each other with Sunrisers having a good record of winning 10 of them.
Sunrisers led by David Warner in a much better third spot with eight points winning four out of seven matches. Warner has been leading the team from front. He has scored 235 runs from seven games while opener Shikhar Dhawan has been the top scorer with 282 from equal number of games. Moises Henriques is also in good form.
However, their loss against Pune two days ago had been a big disappointment.
RCB batting line up has been inconsistent with Kohli making 154 from four games, Gayle 144 and de Villiers 145 from equal number of matches. Kedar Jadhav has been a big disappointment though the team needs his hitting prowess badly.
Australian fast bowler Ben Cutting today warned that RCB was capable of hitting back and they play on the home turf. M Chinnaswamy stadium was small and a good batting wicket, he said.
Naman Ojha said Yuvraj Singh who was dropped against Pune, is likely to bounce back, if he plays tomorrow, as he was in good form. Top wicket taker in the league so far Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has been the spearhead for Sunrisers with 16 wickets, while young Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan (10 wickets) has been revealing. Rabada brings solidity to Sunrisers bowling line up. RCB bowling revolves around leg spinners Samuel Badree and Yazyvenra Chahal and all rounder Shane Watson. Following are the squads:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (Capt), Tymal Mills, Aniket Chaudhary, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Sreenath Arvind, Kedar Jadhav, Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Samuel Badree, Iqbal Abdulla, Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Avesh Khan and Tabraiz Shamsi.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (Capt), Tanmay Agarwal, Ricky Bhui, Bipul Sharma, Ben Cutting, Shikhar Dhawan, Eklavya Dwivedi, Moises Henriques, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan, Siddharth Kaul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ben Laughlin, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammed Siraj, Mustafizur Rahman, Ashish Nehra, Naman Ojha (wk), Rashid Khan, Vijay Shankar, Barinder Sran, Pravin Tambe, Kane Williamson and Yuvraj Singh.
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