From Chandigarh and Chennai for the first 2 games, the IPL caravan now swifts its way to Chinnaswamy the epitome venue of T20 cricket. Flat pitch with a good bounce, a fast outfield, and perfectly small boundaries for six hitting. Along with these batting-friendly features, the crowd of Chinnaswamy, and the RCB fans make the atmosphere lit twice more with their energy. The first Monday of this IPL will feature Royal Challengers Bengaluru take on Punjab Kings at this prestigious venue.
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Royal Challengers Bengaluru
The start of the campaign wasn’t quite pleasing for the red army but there were some positives. Anyway, the Chepauk has never been a winning venue for them so they can lift themselves up and deliver their home fans some winning taste to kick off this 3 consecutive games home leg. The biggest takeaway for RCB from the Chepauk encounter was the partnership between Rawat and Kartik. The assurance that some batters apart from their top 4 can score big runs when necessary will cool down the RCB “think tank”. However, there will be some questions raised regarding the batting order.
The previous game saw Glenn Maxwell coming out to bat in powerplay despite the option of Cameron Green being available. Cameron Green batted at no.3 for Mumbai last year and delivered 452 runs averaging 50 with a strike rate of 162. These numbers are extraordinary for any t20 standards let alone the IPL. Green batting at no. 3 will also ensure that Patidar and Maxwell being the better players of spin get to play more overs of spin than the other batters. From over number 6 to 14 RCB scored 48 runs in 48 balls against Chennai; 6 of these 8 overs were bowled by spinners. A run-rate of “6” in middle overs on a pitch that was not too difficult to bat? Reason? Both better players of spin already being in the dugout.
In his short IPL career, Rajat Patidar averages 34 with a mammoth Strike rate of 161 against spinners & Big Show’s IPL strike rate against spinners is even better at 165. Extraordinary numbers and two very valuable players, but no use/advantage of them if they are not utilised correctly.
RCB’s bowling as expected didn’t show any big signs of ” get going “. Yash Dayal and Mohammad Siraj, the expected new ball bowlers created a few minor chances here and there but were strongly nullified by the aggressive batting of Rachin Ravindra. Alzaro Joseph, The one and quarter million dollars signing went at an economy rate of 10.4; too early to question the buy but in such a fast-flowing tournament & with Reece Topley and in-form Lockie Ferguson on the bench, RCB might very well take an early decision.
Punjab Kings
The Kings of Punjab ticked the first box accurately. A clinical win against Delhi who were outperformed with both bat and ball. Winning the toss and choosing to bowl first Punjab’s bowlers didn’t step a foot wrong except first 3 and last over. Between over number 4th and 19th Punjabis bagged 8 wickets, all with different bowlers and in perfectly timed intervals, Delhi couldn’t get any partnership scoring more than 40 runs. Contradicting the first innings, Punjab Kings stitched a 42-run partnership for 3rd wicket and a match-winning 67 runs partnership for 5th wicket. A pure act of sensible batting alongside effective bowling could be a sign of something good happening for Punjab this year.
Sam Curran the player of the match, proved to be an asset at no. 4 with his match-winning knock. The next game being against RCB at Chinnaswamy, the death bowling of Punjab will be well-tested and will be a thing to watch out for in this match.
Pitch and Probable Playing XII
Bengaluru has hosted 2 t20 internationals since the 2023 World Cup. One of those T20Is saw Afghanistan almost chasing down 213 against India before the game went into a Double Super over. The other T20I was comparatively low scoring with India defending 160 against Australia. Nevertheless, the pitch is expected to be batting-friendly and a high-scoring encounter awaits. Spinners of both teams will play a huge role in determining the result as it has been witnessed in Chinnaswamy for a very long time.
Both teams are expected to be unchanged unless any unavailability issue occurs.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Faf Du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Cameron Green, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Kartik, Anuj Rawat (wk), Alzarri Joseph, Mayank Dagar, Karn Sharma, Yash Dayal, Mohammad Siraj.
Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan(c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Prabhsimran Singh, Sam Curran, Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.
Key Matchups
- Virat Kohli v/s Harpreet Brar: 56 runs, 45 balls, 2 dismissals.
- Glenn Maxwell v/s Harpreet Brar: 17 runs, 14 balls, 3 dismissals.
- Liam Livingstone v/s Alzarri Joseph: 22 runs, 10 balls, 0 dismissals.
RCB vs PBKS Dream11 Team for Match 6 of 2023 IPL
Note: This is not our final Dream11 Team as we are not aware of the Toss Result/Final Playing XI of both teams at this moment.
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