Must win match for Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday 14th may as they will be facing Gujarat Lions in the 44th match of Vivo Indian Premier League at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Winning this match, Gujarat Lions will be looking to make sure that they will be part of playoffs and reach to the top in points table. RCB will desperate for two points to keep their hopes alive in the prestigious twenty20 league.
Preview
Royal Challengers Bangalore are playing at home and as per reports, they will certainly make changes to the playing Xi against GL. Chris Gayle was recalled in the last match to open the side but he failed completely once again to bat well. He is expected to be dropped from the playing line-up while Travis Head is rumored to play on Saturday. KL Rahul will be seen opening the innings once again with Kohli.
Virat Kohli is the one man army for Bangalore, especially this season. He has scored 568 runs in the tournament so far in 10 matches and team will be hoping from him to bat well once again versus Gujarat. The last time when these two teams met, Kohli smashed his first ever century in IPL T20 cricket but team ended up losing that game. AB De Villiers is also in good form and till now has scored 410 runs in the competition. So both players need to fire against Lions to get some hopes for playoffs qualification.
Gujarat Lions got some momentum in the last game after facing three successive defeats. Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith have not played the innings for which they known for apart from few games. Both players played destructive innings against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last meet which turned the game towards Lions. Both players provided quick start that helped Gujarat to win the match easily.
It will be a testing match for Suresh Raina too as he hasn’t played at his best in this ninth Indian Premier League. He kept himself as one of the top leading runs scorers in previous IPL seasons but this year he hasn’t performed as per his reputation and capabilities. Dinesh Karthik has played some good knocks in the event and will be looking to play crucial inning in the middle order again.
Probable Playing XI
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli (Captain), Shane Watson, AB De Villiers, KL Rahul, Stuart Binny, Sachin Baby, Chris Jordan, Sreenath Aravind, Varun Aaron, Yuzvendra Chahal, Travis Head.
Gujarat Lions
Suresh Raina (Captain), Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Aaron Finch, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Praveen Tambe, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shadab Jakati.
Read more: Teams ranking in points table
Predictions
Score: Chinnaswamy stadium’s pitch supports batsmen and is expected to play again in favor of batsman. RCB vs GL match is expected to be a high scoring match and as per our analysis 180+ runs will be scored by team batting first.
Win chances: Current form suggests Gujarat Lions will win the match and will be favorite to win. But in home conditions, Royal Challengers are a strong side. As per our prediction RCB will win this match and keep their hopes alive in the tournament to make it through knockouts. Bangalore have 53 percent win chances.