Bangalore Will Be Desperate On Return to Chinnaswamy

Royal Challengers Bangalore have last played at their home-ground on May 1, and they will now play there again after more than 15 days, but nothing has much changed in the points table.

Cricket news: It is a must-win game for RCB as they must win to remain in contention for the playoffs

In this few days, Bangalore has won two of their four games and still need two more wins to qualify for the playoffs. As they are going to play in the home-ground again, there is a sense of ‘desperation’ in Virat Kohli and Co.

“I suppose we approach it like the last three games. We know the scenario and the only way we can give ourselves that opportunity is having the desperation. I think the way that it appears to me visually is the way Virat bats. He plays unencumbered and he plays aggressive, particularly in that Powerplay. We have seen in the last two games versus Delhi and obviously in the last one versus Kings XI that he is prepared to take bowlers on and take a lot of risks. When he does that, that has a way of flowing through the rest of the team, and particularly with our batting,” said Daniel Vettori, the head coach of RCB.

Bangalore have to be extra mindful during their middle phase of their batting even after they secure a good start. The Hyderabad bowlers are consistent all throughout the 20 overs, but they are exceptional to take more wickets (34 out of 75) between 7th and 15th over.

When Bangalore had faced Hyderabad just nine days ago, they got a first-hand experience as they went from 55 for 1 in 6 overs to 85 for 5 in 12 overs.

Hyderabad are sitting atop the points table, but they are not going to change the line-up much, which means that players like Carlos Brathwaite will have to remain in the sidelines.

“If you look at any T20 tournament, teams which have a high percentage of wins against losses, have very few turnover with regards to the playing XI. That’s pretty much been the case with us. Apart from a couple of injuries, we have been pretty consistent with our selections and I think it is an important thing to have. We will continue to be consistent in these last few games. Because yes, we want to continue to win and secondly, I think it is important you have the continuity within the playing XI – people understanding what their roles are within the team and they get an opportunity to continue their form,” said Tom Moody, the head coach of SRH.

Playing in the Chinnaswamy will be a test for the SRH bowlers as the field is batsmen-friendly. It will serve as a practise for Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Co. before they go to the Wankhede stadium for the playoff matches, which is also a good surface for batting.

Venue – M Chinnaswamy Stadium

RCB Probable XI: Parthiv Patel (wk), Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal

SRH Probable XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Alex Hales, Kane Williamson (c), Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Shakib Al Hasan, Wriddhiman Saha/Shreevats Goswami (wk), Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma