It's now or never for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) when they take on Delhi Capitals who are also looking to get back to winning ways, in an Indian Premier League (IPL) clash here on Sunday.
After losing their first five games, RCB find themselves at the bottom of the eight-team points table. On Friday night, they looked to be in the groove with star batsmen Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers roaring back to form.
Both batsmen hit belligerent half centuries as RCB posted a mammoth 205/3 after being asked to bat first by the Kolkata Knight Riders.
But while defending the score, they were never really in the game as KKR always had a measure of it. And once Andre Russell came in to bat with 53 runs needed off the last three overs, it was carnage as RCB lost with five balls to spare.
Pawan Negi (2/21) impressed with the ball and Yuzvendra Chahal was economical as usual. But barring the spin duo, RCB's thin bowling attack was once again exposed as Chris Lynn, Nitish Rana and Robin Uthappa took them to the cleaners before Russell made them look like amateurs.
If we bowl like that, (and) we don't show composure in pressure moments, we deserve to be where we are in the table," Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
Kohli's captaincy has already come under the scanner and on Friday it was surprising to see England all-rounder Moeen Ali not being used on a spin-friendly wicket.
Coming to Delhi, their batting left a lot to be desired in their last game against Sunrisers Hyderabad. While bowling too, they were good in patches as Hyderabad cantered to a five-wicket win in the end.
The likes of Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris would look to impose themselves more against RCB while Shikhar Dhawan, skippper Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Prithvi Shaw would aim to make the most of a poor bowling arsenal of their opponents.
Squads:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (captain), AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel (WK), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Shivam Dube, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Heinrich Klaasen (WK), Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Pawan Negi, Tim Southee, Akshdeep Nath, Milind Kumar, Devdutt Padikkal, Gurkeerat Singh, Prayas Ray Barman, Kulwant Kejroliya, Navdeep Saini, Himmat Singh.
Delhi Capitals: Ishant Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Colin Ingram, Trent Boult, Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer (c), Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Tewatia, Rishabh Pant (wk), Keemo Paul, Prithvi Shaw, Amit Mishra, Colin Munro, Jalaj Saxena, Harshal Patel, Hanuma Vihari, Bandaru Ayyappa, Ankush Bains, Avesh Khan, Nathu Singh, Sandeep Lamichhane, Manjot Kalra, Sherfane Rutherford
--IANS
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