Bengaluru: After clinching a morale-boosting win against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will look to continue with the momentum and keep their slim chances of making it to the play-offs alive when they take on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Sunday.
RCB had to face an embarrassing seven-wicket defeat against CSK in the first game of the IPL 2019. Their batting had failed miserably as they were bundled-out for mere 70 runs on a slow, turning wicket of the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Virat Kohli scored his first century of this IPL during RCB’s narrow 10-run victory against KKR in their last game and RCB fans would be hoping that the skipper continues with his ruthless batting form against CSK.
RCB, languishing at the bottom of the table with just four points from nine games, would be aware of the fact that it won’t be easy for them to over the MS Dhoni-led side, even while playing at their home ground and having their star batsman in form.
On the other hand, Chennai, who were comfortably beaten by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the last encounter, would be desperate to make amends in their game.
Regular skipper MS Dhoni had to sit out of the SRH game because of back spasms and in his absence, Suresh Raina had to take up the captaincy role. Dhoni’s absence, both while batting and defending a small target of 132, was felt during the SRH game. They would also hope that the 37-year-old is fit for the game and takes on the field.
Chennai, still sitting pretty at the points table with 14 points from nine games, would aim for victory against RCB and confirm their berth in the play-offs.
Squads:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Parthiv Patel, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Tim Southee, Virat Kohli (c), Umesh Yadav, Moeen Ali, Yuzvendra Chahal, Colin de Grandhomme, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Akshdeep Nath, Milind Kumar, Marcus Stoinis, Navdeep Saini, Shimron Hetmyer, Heinrich Klaasen, Himmat Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Kulwant Khejroliya, Devdutt Padikkal, Prayas Barman
Chennai Super Kings: Harbhajan Singh, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Karn Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis, Deepak Chahar, Sam Billings, Mohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Dhruv Shorey, Scott Kuggeleijn, Monu Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Chaitanya Bishnoi, N Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif
–IANS
