IPL 2020, SRH vs RCB LIVE: This will be the third time that these two teams are meeting each other this season. (BCCI/IPL)IPL 2020, SRH vs RCB: Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH Full Squad) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB Full Squad) will be here at the middle today to battle it out for becoming of the two teams fighting for spot in Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) finals. The Eliminator of the IPL 2020 is being played at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi between David Warner’s Orange Army and Virat Kohli’s men.
The high-spirited SRH have reached here after three back-to-back victories that parachuted them to the third spot in the points table. While RCB fumbled a bit in the league stage after four consecutive losses but managed to be in top four. So there will be a clear fight between the both as a place in the Qualifier 2 will be up for grabs today.
With the change in the UAE’s season, the toss at Abu Dhabi will be significant. Interestingly, the last five fixtures were won by the chasing team. Delhi Capital’s Anrich Nortje admitted that dew had begun to set in the second half of the first innings. So the team batting first will hope to mitigate the major toss disadvantage.
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Virat Kohli: 'It could go both ways, we would have bowled first. But runs on the board could prove crucial. The last game opened up completely, when you haven't qualified, the nerves will come. It's an exciting time, it's been a leasure to play here.The seniors will have to take up responsibility, let the youngsters play freely. Chris Morris misses out with a quad injury, Joshua Phillipe is out as well. Aaron Finch is back, so is Adam Zampa. Saini replaces Shahbaz Ahmed'
Royal Challengers Bangalore Playing XI: Aaron Finch, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers(w), Moeen Ali, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
David Warner: 'We will bowl first. Dew could play an effect, the last couple of games say so. But the wicket will not change a lot. We are under no pressure, it already started a couple of games back. Unfortunately Saha misses out with an injury, Goswami replaces him. The trophy means a lot for us, the owners and the fans back home.'
Sunrisers Hyderabad Playing XI: David Warner(c), Shreevats Goswami(w), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan
Sunrisers Hyderabad have won the toss and have opted to field first against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Probable Playing XI: Joshua Philippe, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris/Isuru Udana, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini/Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Sunrisers Hyderabad Probable Playing XI: David Warner (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg/Abhishek Sharma, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma, T. Natarajan
Josh Philippe, who has been brought in place of Aaron Finch, has looked good in patches but hasn’t been able to convert his starts and in all likelihood, Kohli might be tempted to bring back Finch on Friday.
RCB skipper Virat Kohli has raised his voice regarding the impact of playing back-to-back series and staying in bio-bubbles, which can mentally affect the players. He along with other Indian players will fly out to Australia soon after the tournament finishes. The series against Australia only ends in February, which means a majority of the players would have been part of the bio-bubble culture for a lengthy period. Speaking to RCB TV, the Indian skipper said a serious thought has to be given about the length of series for the well-being of players. Listen to him:
“Chris Gayle doesn’t like it when the ball moves from his right eye to left.” Insightful, incisive, and yet simple from Sandeep Sharma, just like his bowling then. Sharma’s art lies in bending the ball across a batsman’s visual field. Drag it across like a wiper, make the eyes jerk and mess up the eye-hand coordination, affect his balance, and ultimately, make him play early or stab it out too late. And he can curve it both ways. A swing bowler couldn’t have explained the essence of his art better than that comment about Gayle made couple of years back. Not a surprise then that he is the king of Powerplays. With 53 wickets, he has surpassed Zaheer Khan to become the bowler with the highest wickets in that phase. This season he has taken 9 of his 13 wickets in powerplay. [Read More]
Virat Kohli-lead Royal Challengers Bangalore will want to win the toss and chase, because they've batted first in each of their four back-to-back losses. It led them into the Eliminator. If they're forced to bat first again, they'll want to sort out their approach. Their middle-overs (7-16) run rate of 7.14 is the worst of all eight teams this season. RCB's middle-order go-slow has now started to impact their finish. They have scored 44/4, 35/4, 27/3 and 49/5 at the death in the last four games.
Morris is anything but a one-dimensional cricketer. As a fast bowler, he can bowl regularly at 140kmph, can take wickets in the Powerplay and restrict batsmen at the end of the innings with searing yorkers and clever variations. Morris is also an excellent fielder and destructive lower-middle-order batsman. Frustratingly, he has hardly done anything substantial with the bat in this tournament. Barring an unbeaten 25 against Kings XI Punjab in Sharjah, he has managed scores of 2,4,3 and 0. His all-round abilities were supposed to lend balance to the RCB outfit, much like Holder has done for SRH in the five games he has played. If Morris gets going with the bat against SRH, Warner may have a big headache.
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Virat Kohli has scored 460 runs from 14 matches this season. He time and again proved that he can perform on the bigger stage and will be itching to make an impact in the Eliminator. Kohli will have the solid support of AB de Villiers and Devdutt Padikkal, who has been RCB’s leading run-getter this season with 472 to his name.
On the bowling front, SRH has found the right combination in Sandeep Sharma, Jason Holder, Shahbaz Nadeem, T Natarajan and Rashid Khan and is expected to stick with them.While Sandeep has been sensational in the powerplays, Natarajan has done the job in the the death overs. Rashid has been consistent in the middle overs, but certainly the inclusion of Holder and Nadeem has provided balance to the team.
The credit for SRH’s success in the past few matches goes to the opening pair of Warner and Wriddhiman Saha. The duo has clicked upfront and has so far shared two century stands — 107 against DC and then 151 against MI.
While Warner has led SRH from the front, scoring 529 runs from 14 games to occupy the second spot in the scorers’ list, Saha (184 runs from 3 matches) has proved that the SRH team management has erred in benching him for 11 ties.
Such has been Warner and Saha’s performance that the likes of Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg and Jason Holder were hardly bothered.
Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore have taken contrasting routes to the playoffs. After a lacklustre start, David Warner’s team peaked at the business end of the league phase, registering three back-to-back wins that parachuted them to third spot in the points table. After four consecutive losses in the league stage, RCB’s campaign has stuttered even though they have sealed fourth spot. In the Eliminator in Abu Dhabi, the loser of which goes home, Virat Kohli’s side will have its task cut out, as SRH are brimming with confidence. [Read More]
In the end, the much-anticipated, high-voltage encounter turned out to be anti-climatic. While fortunes waxed and waned during Mumbai’s innings, both teams seizing grip over certain passages of the game, Delhi’s reply ended in the first eight balls of their chase of 200. Two down in the first over, three in the second, without registering a single run on the board, Delhi Capitals were knocked out in the blink of an eye. Marcus Stoinis and Axar Patel resisted and dragged them back onto their feet, but it was a bridge too far for them to cross. The 57-run win taking the defending champions into another IPL final, while DC wait for the winner of Friday’s Eliminator. [Read More]
David Warner needs 5 sixes to complete 200 IPL sixes.
Wriddhiman Saha requires 21 runs to complete 2000 IPL runs
Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal need 40 and 28 runs respectively to complete 500 runs in IPL 2020.
AB de Villiers requires 36 runs to complete 500 IPL runs against SRH
Hello and welcome to the Live Blog on the day-long build-up of SRH vs RCB Eliminator in Abu Dhabi today. The winner of the match will face the loser of the Qualifier 1 (Delhi Capitals). This will be the third time that these two teams are meeting each other this season. RCB had begun their season with a game against SRH and had come out on top to seal a ten-run win. However, SRH, on the back of their fine all-round bowling performance, avenged the loss in their second meeting at the latter stages of the season.