The second match of Saturday’s double-header will see MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings taking on Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore in a mouth-watering clash. Both the teams have struggled for consistency so far and will be looking to get back to winning ways today.
Chennai Super Kings have managed just 2 wins from their opening six games and are languishing at the sixth spot in the points table. Their batting, especially the middle order, has underperformed so far. The three-time champions have scored at 7.6 runs per over in the powerplay this year- the second lowest among all teams – and the performance from the middle-order is even worse.
With the likes of MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav not in good touch, they have failed to close their innings strongly. In their last game against KKR, they were 99 for 1 after 12 overs while chasing 168 but eventually lost the game by ten runs.
Royal Challengers Bangalore are comparatively in a good spot, having won three of their opening five games. However, they will be low on confidence after the heavy loss against Delhi Capitals in their previous game. They had lost the game by 59 runs while chasing 194. With the IPL all set to enter its business phase now, both the teams will be looking to regain their form and string a series of wins.
Toss report:
Royal Challengers Bangalore have won the toss and have elected to bat first against Chennai Super Kings.
Playing elevens:
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers(w), Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Washington Sundar, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal
Chennai Super Kings:
Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w/c), N Jagadeesan, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Karn Sharma