Match:RCB vs RPS, 35th Match, Indian Premier League, 2016
Date:Saturday, May 07, 2016
Time:10:30 AM GMT
Venue:M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
Stadium:M.Chinnaswamy Stadium
City:Bengaluru
Capacity:40,000
Ends:Pavilion End, BEML End
Hosts to:Karnataka
It will be a battle of survival for the two national captains as Virat Kohli's struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore square off against a fledgling Pune Supergiants led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in an IPL encounter for the bottom-rung teams in Bengaluru on Saturday.
With five defeats in seven games, RCB are currently placed at a lowly seventh spot in the table with four points while Pune are just a notch above in sixth spot courtesy their third win against Delhi Daredevils on Thursday.
RCB also needs to win almost all games to keep their hopes alive, without depending on other team's performances to qualify when the event nears the business end. To begin their quest to bounce back, the hosts will be keen to find their foot after they were defeated by two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders, who rode high on Yusuf Pathan's match-winning half century to record a five-wicket victory, in their den.
For Dhoni and his men, they will like to think that the win against Daredevils will boost their morale after four defeats at their home ground in Pune. Spate of injuries leading to return of Faf du Plessis, Kevin Pietersen, Steven Smith and Mitchell Marsh has hampered Dhoni's plans but he will get some relief with the joining of Usman Khawaja, who made 30 in his IPL debut.
RCB would once again be relying heavily on their batsmen, hoping that opener Chris Gayle, skipper Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, KL Rahul and Shane Watson put up a massive total on the board. More than anyone else, Gayle will be eager to get back into form as he has scored only 8 runs in 3 games so far with the highest score of 7. Considered easily as the most destructive batsman in this format, the dip in form since the World T20 has not done anything great for the reputation of the 'Big Jamaican', who has been a proven match-winner in this format.
In T20's, it takes a match or specifically one innings for a turnaround. Dhoni and his men will pray that the turnaround at least does not happen against them. The last time when a Pune Franchise (Pune Warriors) played against RCB at Bangalore, Gayle scored an unbelievable 175 not out, a match that is still fresh in the memory of the cricket aficionados of the 'Garden City'.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Squad:
Varun Aaron, Iqbal Abdulla, Sreenath Aravind, Samuel Badree, Stuart Binny, Yuzvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers, Praveen Dubey, Chris Gayle, Travis Head, Kedar Jadhav, Akshay Karnewar, Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli, Vikramjeet Malik, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Abu Nechim, Parvez Rasool, Harshal Patel, Lokesh Rahul, Kane Richardson, Sachin Baby, Mitchell Starc, Vikas Tokas, Shane Watson, David Wiese, Tabraiz Shamsi
Rising Pune Supergiants Squad:
Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Murugan Ashwin, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Scott Boland, Deepak Chahar, MS Dhoni, Ashok Dinda, Faf du Plessis, Peter Handscomb, Jaskaran Singh Singh, Mitchell Marsh, Albie Morkel, Ishwar Pandey, Irfan Pathan, Thisara Perera, Kevin Pietersen, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Steven Smith, Saurabh Tiwary, Adam Zampa, George Bailey, Usman Khawaja
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