The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will face the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday in the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
LSG come into this game on the back of a comprehensive victory against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at home on Friday. They spun a web around the Aiden Markram-led side courtesy impressive performances from the trio of Ravi Bishnoi, Krunal Pandya and Amit Mishra to restrict the Sunrisers to only 121 runs in 20 overs.
Lucknow then chased down the target with ease in 16 overs and will they will take a lot of confidence from that outing when they square off against Bangalore albeit in completely different playing conditions on Monday.
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Bangalore, on the other hand, will hope to bounce back strongly from their dismal 81-run loss to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. The Bangalore batsmen had cruised to their target in their opening game of the season against the Mumbai Indians (MI) and a return to familiar conditions in the Chinnaswamy will possibly help them resurrect their form against Lucknow.
LSG will be pondering upon making space for Quinton de Kock in the playing XI. The South African opener scored 540 runs in the previous campaign and finished as the third-highest run-scorer in the league. However, Kyle Mayers’ consecutive half-centuries in the first two games kept de Kock out of the playing XI considering now they have Nicholas Pooran keeping the wickets as well. The southpaw scored only 13 runs against Hyderabad though and it remains to be seen if the Lucknow management opt to shake things up to accommodate de Kock.
Bangalore can ward off the loss as a one-off affair and not really make any forced changes due to the same. Their star leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga will be available for selection and that can open up a lot of wicket-taking avenues for them in the middle-overs.
Predicted Playing XI:
RCB: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Michael Bracewell, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Karn Sharma.
Impact Player: Mahipal Lomror
LSG: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Ayush Badoni, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Mark Wood.
Impact Player: Amit Mishra
Key Player To Watch
Glenn Maxwell (RCB)
RCB looked at their dominant best when their openers took on the Mumbai Indians’ (MI) bowlers fearlessly in the first game. However, that approach might result in them losing their wickets early on at times and Glenn Maxwell will have to assume a lot of batting responsibility in that case.
The track at Chinnaswamy suits his playing style but the all-rounder might often have to both build and finish the innings. Maxwell will need to start showing up more prominently with the bat if RCB are to have a good season and it would be better if he gets in the groove early on in the campaign.
Krunal Pandya (LSG)
Krunal Pandya demonstrated admirable bowling smarts as he tore apart the SRH batting unit as he dismissed three of their batsmen for 18 runs in his four-over spell. That game awareness will again come to the fore when he bowls to the Bangalore batsmen in the shorter boundaries on offer at Chinnaswamy.
That coupled with his new promotion to number four in the batting order puts added responsibility on the Baroda all-rounder and it will be interesting to see if he can put forth similarly impressive performances on a consistent basis this season.
Pitch Report
The average first innings batting score in 16 T20Is in Chinnaswamy is 135 but trend suggests that a fairly high-scoring encounter could be on the cards on Monday.
Where to Watch
Television users can tune into the action on the Star Sports Network at 7:30 pm. Digital viewers can catch the live action on the JioCinema application at the same time.
(Edited by : Jerome Anthony)
First Published: Apr 10, 2023 9:19 AM IST
