Royal Challengers Bangalore vs. Sunrisers Hyderabad: 54th IPL Match Preview

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs. Sunrisers Hyderabad: 54th IPL Match Preview

Royal Challengers Bangalore will host the Sunrisers Hyderabad at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday night for their final league match of their 2019 IPL campaign. Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to seal a playoffs spot when facing the bottom-table Bangalore.

Royals Challengers Bangalore is the only team who is not in the race to qualify for the playoffs after the dreadful start of the season. However, the things got improved where they lost just two of their seven games and claimed four wins and now they are in the business to ruin the Hyderabad's chance to qualify for the playoffs and they have done the same in the past. Moreover, Bangalore will be without Moeen Ali who already flown back to take part in World Cup preparations, while Dale Steyn already ruled out of the tournament and still the availability of Marcus Stoinis is still not known as he was also expected to fly back to take part in World Cup preparations. However, players like Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers who are in great form and still the team will rely more on them for this encounter.

Hyderabad meanwhile is sitting on the fourth position with 12 points in 13 matches and are still in contention for the playoffs spot if they manage to pull a victory against Bangalore thanks to their better net run-rate of 0.653. However, they suffered the major setbacks in the batting department after the departure of David Warner and Jonny

Royal Challengers Bangalore will host the Sunrisers Hyderabad at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday night for their final league match of their 2019 IPL campaign. Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to seal a playoffs spot when facing the bottom-table Bangalore.

Royals Challengers Bangalore is the only team who is not in the race to qualify for the playoffs after the dreadful start of the season. However, the things got improved where they lost just two of their seven games and claimed four wins and now they are in the business to ruin the Hyderabad's chance to qualify for the playoffs and they have done the same in the past. Moreover, Bangalore will be without Moeen Ali who already flown back to take part in World Cup preparations, while Dale Steyn already ruled out of the tournament and still the availability of Marcus Stoinis is still not known as he was also expected to fly back to take part in World Cup preparations. However, players like Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers who are in great form and still the team will rely more on them for this encounter.

Hyderabad meanwhile is sitting on the fourth position with 12 points in 13 matches and are still in contention for the playoffs spot if they manage to pull a victory against Bangalore thanks to their better net run-rate of 0.653. However, they suffered the major setbacks in the batting department after the departure of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow for their respective national team for World Cup preparations. Moreover, the unavailability of Shakib Al Hasan won't make much difference. However, looking at the batting department few questions arises except Manish Pandey none other players played big knock like Kane Williamson whose poor form still continues, while Vijay Shankar and Abhishek Sharma have not contributed anything for a while now thanks to their bowling department where Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, and Khaleel Ahmed have been very good for the Sunrisers in the last few games.

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Wicket-Keeper: Parthiv Patel (9 credits)

Patel has been consistently scoring runs at an average of 30 in past few matches for the team but he is failing to convert the start in to big, however, his role in the team already has been fixed where he will attack the opposition bowlers in the powerplay to score in bulk which will reduce the run-scoring burden from Virat Kohli.

Batsman: AB de Villiers (10.5 credits)

De Villiers got out cheaply the last time against Hyderabad however he is expected to fire up some big runs before ending up his 2019 IPL campaign in-front of the home support. De Villiers already scored 441 runs at an average of 49 in 12 matches with five half-centuries to his name.

All-Rounder: Mohammad Nabi (9 credits)

The all-rounder played a brilliant knock of 31 in his previous match against Mumbai India in a match which was ended in a super over but he will be the key player as a top-order batsman of Bangalore finds some difficulties scoring against spinners. It won't be surprised if Sunrises captain introduces him in the power-play to bowl. He will play a vital role in this crucial encounter.

Bowler: Rashid Khan (9 credits)

Khan took seven wickets in his last four matches against Bangalore out of which he dismissed AB de Villiers twice and Virat Kohli once. Khan's four overs will be difficult for Bangalore's batting line-up to score in bulk.

Captain: AB de Villiers

Vice-Captain: Manish Pandey

Predicted Playing XI:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Parthiv Patel (WK), Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villiers, Shimron Hetmyer, Heinrich Klaasen, Shivam Dube, Gurkeerat Singh, Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Martin Guptill, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson (C), Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Basil Thampi, Khaleel Ahmed

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ajay Patil
Ajay Patil writes about fantasy cricket and soccer for RotoWire. He has been active in DFS cricket, NBA and soccer since 2015.
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