High on confidence after registering a win against Kings XI Punjab at home ground, Virat kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will look for a second win this Indian Premier League season (IPL 2018) when they take on Ajinkya Rahane's Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium. IPL fans are likely to witness a very tight contest in today's RCB vs RR match, the first of the two ties to be played on Aapril 15. Both RCB and RR will look to register their resepective second wins of IPL 2018.
At present, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals are ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, on the Vivo points table. Both have two points each from two matches after they lost their respective opening ties against Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Royal Challengers Bangalore will be bubbling with confidence, having opened their account by beating Kings XI Punjab at the same venue on Friday. After RCB bowlers dismissed KXIP for 155, there was a bit of drama in RCB’s run-chase, but AB de Villiers’ summoned his experience and used his ability to swing matches in an instant to ensure RCB got over the finish line and get their first points on the board. Pacer Umesh Yadav took three wickets in one over to be a star for RCB, which had finished last in the league table in the previous season of IPL. Meanwhile, the RCB management will be worried about the form of Chris Woakes; though the Englishman has picked up 5 wickets, he has conceded 72 in the 7.5 overs that he has bowled so far this IPL.
While Rajasthan lost their opening tie against Sunrisers Hyderabad, they came back strongly in the rain-affected contest against Delhi Daredevils and won the match by 10 runs by D/L method. Rajasthan Royals surely fell on the favourable side of the Duckworth-Lewis Method and might want to look at a few areas that need improvement, especially batting. Rajasthan Royals' three big guns in the IPL 2018 Auction – Ben Stokes, Jaydev Unadkat and D’Arcy Short – are yet to make a significant contribution and the RR management will be hoping they can come good in today's match.
Here are a few things you need to know before today's Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore match aat M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, the teams performance in recent clashes and what to look forward to:
Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen who can make an impact in today's match against Rajasthan Royals: RCB has some quality batting-- Virat Kohli, Quinton de Kock and Ab de Villiers-- in their top order. Virat Kohli and Ab de Villiers will be at the centre of RCB batting plans. While Quinton de Kock's 45 against Kings XI Punjab will give his the required confidence after a poor show in the first match. De Villiers scored a match-winning half-century in the previous match and he will be keen to continue where he left off in the last match.
Rajasthan Royals batsmen who can make an impact in today's match against Royal Challengers Bangalore: Rajasthan Royals' opener D’Arcy Short has not got the opportunity to showcase his capability as the left-hander has been run out in both the innings so far and will be keen to get cracking on a fantastic batting surface in Bengaluru. Ben Stokes who had two quiet outings too, while Jos Buttler's quickfire 29 against Delhi Daredevils will boost his confidence. Rajasthan Royals will expect the three overseas batsmen to contribute in excess of 100 runs. RR team management will also expect long innings from Sanju Samson, who had a good start but failed to convert his starts into big innings.
Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers to look forward to in today's match: Umesh Yadav, who struck thrice in an over in the last match against Kings Xi Punjab, has bowled with plenty of fire. He appears to be pumped up, has run in hard and has bowled quick in the two matches so far and took 5 wickets. After giving too many runs in the first match, RCB's duo spinners-- Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sunder-- enhanced their performance in the match against KXIP and will look forward to taking wickets for RCB in today's match.
Rajasthan Royals bowlers to look forward to in today's match: Rajasthan Royals will bank on their local players to give a wonderful performance as the leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal and the off-spinner K Gowtham have played plenty of cricket at the Chinnaswamy Stadium – their home ground in domestic cricket. While RR pacers Ben Laughlin and Dhawal Kulkarni had done well to keep Delhi Daredevils batsmen in check with their variations.
What Gowthan said about RR's preparation ahead of today's match: Rajasthan Royals spinner Krishnappa Gowtham said his team picked up some tricks by watching Royal Challengers Bangalore's previous game and has prepared accordingly for the today's match. "We did get to watch yesterday's game. We wanted to know what the wicket was doing. When bowlers were bowing it had initial grip, so it is an added advantage. The way the RCB batted there are lot of things we can look at. The way they tackled the spin was very good. We have different plans for different players and hope they all come out good," said Gowtham.
What RCB captain Virat Kohli said after their victory against KXIP: After registering their first victory at home in the 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL), an elated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli has credited the outcome to his bowlers, especially Umesh Yadav. "Very happy. First home game is crucial. Last year, we couldn't get off to a start. The crowd has a lot of expectations, especially in the initial stages of the tournament. We knew the new ball will come on nicely, and the batsmen hit some good shots. Umesh bowled well, getting three wickets in an over is great", said Kohli.
Here is a look at how each team in today's contest has fared head-to-head against each other in IPL tournaments so far:
Overall
Matches played: 16
Royal Challengers Bangalore won: 8
Rajasthan Royals won: 7
No Result: 1
At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium:
Matches played: 6
Royal Challengers Bangalore won: 2
Rajasthan Royals won: 3
No Result: 1
Some trivia ahead of today's match between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore
Rajasthan Royals’ D’Arcy Short has been run out twice in two matches this season.
Ben Stokes has dismissed Virat Kohli on 5 occasions so far in his career – including once in IPL 2017.
While AB de Villiers averages 48.50 against the Rajasthan Royals, Virat Kohli averages 19.85 – his lowest against any of the IPL teams.