The rivalry between Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni will continue in the Indian Premier League (IPL) when the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) take the field against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru on Monday, April 16.
RCB head into this match at home after beating the Delhi Capitals (DC) on Saturday. But they will face a tough test in Chennai, against a side that lost to the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by three runs. In such a situation, Faf du Plessis, skipper of RCB, won the toss and has chosen to bowl first.
About their side, du Plessis confirmed that the same team will start the match but they will mix and match with their impact players. “I think the nature of pitches will turn, but 180-200 will be a nice target to change. It is quite a small ground and the ball travels, the surface is good and a little bit of dew could help. No changes in our starting XI but got some tricks up our sleeve for the impact player.”
For Chennai, they will not have Sisanda Magala, with Matheesha Pathirana returning to the Playing XI.
Head to head
In matches between the two teams, Chennai Super Kings lead the head-to-head record against Royal Challengers Bangalore, having won 20 of the 30 matches between the two. RCB have won the remaining 10.
In IPL 2022, RCB and CSK clashed twice, with both teams winning once. CSK beat RCB by 23 runs in Mumbai before RCB avenged the loss with a 13-run win in Pune.
Pitch Report
“The pitch looks very good, there is a 20-run difference between the day games and the night games. DC got knocked over under 150 but that is not relevant because this is night time and there is huge potential to get big runs today. The only concern as a batter is that the middle areas of the pitch look very dry, and it is extremely hard,” Pommie Mbangwa said while assessing the pitch.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj, Vijaykumar Vyshak.
Subs: Suyash Prabhudessai, David Willey, Akash Deep, Karn Sharma, Anuj Rawat.
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w/c), Matheesha Pathirana, Maheesh Theekshana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Singh.
Subs: Ambati Rayudu, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed, RS Hangargekar
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