Contest at Chinnaswamy Stadium between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals promises to be a runfest as both teams bank on their strong batting ammunition
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Virat Kohli during his 59 against Punjab Kings at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium on Thursday. Pic/AFP; (right) Rajasthan Royals’s English batting stalwart Jos Buttler during his 40 against Lucknow Super Giants in Jaipur on Wednesday. Pic/AFP
It’s been a strange season for Royal Challengers Bangalore. After six games, they boast the Orange Cap holder (Faf du Plessis) as well as Virat Kohli in the top three run-getters of the IPL. And, following his four-wicket burst against Punjab Kings on Thursday, paceman Mohammed Siraj took possession of the Purple Cap with 12 wickets.
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Yet, the team lies fifth with three wins and as many defeats, indicative of the inconsistency that has plagued their campaign.
With six matches at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in April alone, the first month of the tournament offered them a glorious opportunity to string together a run of victories. Things haven’t gone to plan.
Against this backdrop and with a slew of away matches ahead of them, Sunday afternoon’s fixture against a formidable Rajasthan Royals outfit assumes prime significance. For RCB to separate themselves from the mid-table logjam, victory is imperative, but to achieve that, they must showcase an all-round mettle elusive to date.
RCB’s struggles at home
The true nature of the Chinnaswamy surface and the short boundaries haven’t allowed RCB to make use of home advantage like some other teams. They have also suffered massively owing to the lack of meaningful batting contributions beyond skipper du Plessis, nursing a rib injury, Kohli and Glenn Maxwell. Rajat Patidar’s unavailability has left them genuinely short on homegrown batting talent, and Dinesh Karthik might be missing the same motivation of last year, which means the onus on the Big Three is immense.
Their task won’t be made any easier by the Rajasthan bowling, which possesses two of the best spinners in the tournament in R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, and a gun pace attack with Trent Boult at the forefront and the experienced Sandeep Sharma– who has accounted for Kohli a staggering seven times–lending admirable assistance.
Like RCB, Rajasthan too are heavily dependent on openers Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal, but unlike their opponents, they have quality through the order even though skipper Sanju Samson has spectacularly gone off the boil with scores of 0, 0 and 2 in three of his last four hits. Hometown lad Devdutt Padikkal has been competent, while Shimron Hetmyer can rain mayhem down the order. RCB will have to be on top of their bowling game and offer greater support to Siraj, who has been exceptional with the new ball specifically.
Also Read: IPL 2023: Sam Curran powers Punjab Kings to 214-8 against Mumbai Indians
Hazlewood may return
Josh Hazlewood, the Australian pacer on the road to complete recovery from an Achilles problem, bowled without discomfort on Saturday. If he is deemed fit, it will be a huge boost for the home side, which will augment their commitment to green initiatives with a change in uniform on the morrow.
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