IPL 2021, RCB vs DC Preview: A Battle For Going To The Top of The Table

Royal Challengers Bangalore will clash with Delhi Capitals at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, the 27th of April. Both the teams have had a fine start to the season and won 4 of their first five matches. The winner of the encounter will move to the top of the points table and thus neither of the teams will leave any stone unturned when they clash at Motera. RCB were thrashed by CSK in their last encounter while DC won a thriller against SRH in the Super Over.

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RCB

The RCB had a perfect start to the IPL winning four out of four and had things in control against CSK too until they confronted Ravindra Jadeja. He defeated them twice in the match – the first time in the last over of CSK innings hammering 37 off Harshal Patel and then in the middle overs with the ball picking three wickets in succession.

RCB would like to believe the loss to CSK was an aberration in what has otherwise been a fine start for them in 2021. Devdutt Padikkal seems to have found the aggressor in his batting and backed his hundred against the Royals with a quickfire 34 off 15 balls against the Super Kings. Washington Sundar was promoted to number three but did not get too many but Virat Kohli might persist with him at the position as he is wasted down the order.

AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell will continue to be the playmakers for the team in the middle order.

The bowling received a tonking against CSK. Harshal Patel, who has been outstanding in the tournament, bowled one bad over and it went very bad for him! Mohammed Siraj has been the pick of the RCB bowlers with an economy rate of 6.47. Kyle Jamieson started off well but has been taken for a few and has an economy rate of above 9 in the competition. Yuzvendra Chahal needs to do a bit more with the ball in the middle overs. He has just picked three wickets in five matches and not been too restrictive either.

The withdrawal of Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson is a blow to the Challengers but should not worry them too much as both the leg spinner and the all-rounder are not an automatic selection in the first XI for the franchise.

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DC

The top four are firing for the Capitals but they need more contributions from the lower order. Prithvi Shaw was in splendid touch against CSK with 53 off 39 deliveries. Steven Smith got some runs but needs to push on the accelerator earlier in the innings. Shimron Hetmyer and Marcus Stoinis need to provide the flourish at the death. Shikhar Dhawan has been the batsman of the season with 259 runs in 5 innings at a strike rate of 142.3 with two fifties.

The bowling will be depleted without the services of R Ashwin who has pulled out of the tournament, at least for the time being, to help his family deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Capitals have enough resources to replace the champion off spinner. Axar Patel made a brilliant comeback in the match against SRH and would now play an even more significant role in the middle overs. Amit Mishra has been impressive with his leg spin.

Avesh Khan has been the pick of the DC fast bowlers so far in the season. He has picked 11 wickets in 5 matches at a strike rate of 9.8 and economy rate of 7.61. Kagiso Rabada has not found his rhythm yet in the competition and has only bagged 4 wickets in as many matches while also conceding a few.

WHEN: 27th April, 7:30 PM IST

WHERE: Ahmedabad, India

TELECAST: StarSports

LIVE STREAMING: Hotstar

RCB Team News

RCB are expected to go with the same XI which lost to CSK.

Possible Playing XI: 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Devdutt Padikkal, 3 Washington Sundar, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Kyle Jamieson, 7 Dan Christian, 8 Navdeep Saini , 9 Mohammed Siraj, 10 Harshal Patel, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

DC Team News

DC will be forced to make a change with R Ashwin’s exit from the tournament. They may replace him with an experienced Indian seamer like Umesh Yadav. Hetymer may also be left out for Chris Woakes.

Possible Playing XI: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Rishabh Pant, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Chris Woakes 8 Umesh Yadav, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Avesh Khan

Recent Head-to-Head: (Last 5 matches)

DC has dominated the recent rivalry having beaten RCB in both the matches in IPL 2020 and IPL 2019.

DC won by 6 wickets

DC won by 59 runs

DC won by 16 runs

DC won by 4 wickets

RCB won by 5 wickets

To watch out for

Steven Smith has had a relatively quiet IPL so far. He got some runs against SRH and would be looking to replicate what he did for the Royals at the start of the season in IPL 2020 in the UAE.

Quotes:

RCB: Jadeja’s ability has been there for everyone to see. I am very happy to see him perform with the bat, ball and on the field. After two months, he will be back playing for India and it is always a pleasure to see your premier all-rounder do well with the bat: RCB captain Virat Kohli in praise of the brilliant all-round show by Ravindra Jadeja against his own team.

DC: I am just doing all those stuff I have worked with. It’s helping me right now, so I think I should continue that: Player of the Match for the Delhi Capitals, Prithvi Shaw after his impressive performance against the Sunrisers.

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• AB de Villiers
• DC
• Delhi Capitals
• Glenn Maxwell
• ipl
• IPL 2021
• RCB
• Rishabh Pant
• Royal Challengers Bangalore
• shikhar dhawan
• Virat Kohli