Bengaluru, 4 Apr

Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be highly optimistic about pulling off their second win on the bounce in IPL when they face Chennai Super Kings, who have been hampered by Sanju Samson’s lukewarm start and a lack of strong bowling options, here on Sunday.

The Royal Challengers are well rested after their first game back on 28 March against Sunrisers Hyderabad, which they won by six wickets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

That fresh mind and body apart, the RCB are an infinitely better side than their rivals now, a stark contrast from the past when the Chennaities were bustling with talents through their ranks.

Now, RCB have that luxury. They have a settled top-order under the watch of Virat Kohli, who has kept himself relevant in the age of range-hitting with an impeccable set of skills.

After a phase of wasted talent, Devdutt Padikkal seemed to have woken up the inner white ball giant, evident in his blistering 26-ball 61 against SRH.

Rajat Patidar seemed to have found peace with his dual role of leading the side and giving meat to RCB middle-order.

But it was in the bowling that RCB have massively improved. Once perceived as their Achilles Heel, the Bengalurueans have turned the tide adding some worthy names and made their bowling immune to the vagaries of conditions.

The defending champions were expected to be hamstrung by the absence of Josh Hazlewood but Jacob Duffy stepped in seamlessly, destroying SRH top-order with a three-wicket haul.

He appeared to have struck a chord with the Australian, a connection that was evident in his bowling strategy as he troubled the Hyderabad batters with highly accurate short-pitched deliveries.

Once Hazlewood comes back, which may not happen in the match against CSK, their bowling will be even stronger.

The hosts might also ponder bringing in left-arm pacer Mangesh Yadav in place of Abhinandan Singh for this match.

Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma are not among the T20 spinners elite, but have served RCB’s purpose well with stifling middle-over spells and they will now have to contain CSK’s able middle-order of Shivam Dube, Sarfaraz Khan and Ayush Mhatre.

The script, rest assured, will continue this weekend too, but CSK would want a change in it.

But for that, the Chennai bowlers need to change their script. They have given away 338 runs in 30.5 overs for only seven wickets in two matches - highly inappropriate in the T20 format even considering the batters’ aggression.

Their spinners Noor Ahmad and Rahul Chahar came a cropper against Punjab Kings on Friday, conceding 84 runs in eight overs between them even without a trace of dew at Chepauk.

Pacers Matt Henry, Khaleel Ahmed and Anshul Kamboj too are yet to cover themselves with glory.

Their task will be cut out against a confident set of RCB batters at the Chinnaswamy with its short boundaries.

Concern over Samson’s start

While RCB’s batting looked in prime touch early, Chennai’s batting has some issues to sort out and it starts with Samson’s form.

The T20 World Cup winner has so far made 6 and 7, robbing CSK of their expected strong start.

Of course, it’s just two matches but Samson needs to find his groove at the earliest to give life to the already sagging campaign of Chennai.

Then there is no better occasion for him than a match against cross-state rivals RCB.

Teams (from):

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (captain), Abhinandan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Rasikh Dar, Suyash Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Virat Kohli, Venkatesh Iyer, Mangesh Yadav, Kanishk Chouhan, Vihaan Malhotra, Vicky Ostwal, Satvik Deswal.

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, M.S. Dhoni, Mukesh Choudhary, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Gopal, Khaleel Ahmed, Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Rahul Chahar, Sarfaraz Khan, Aman Khan.

Match starts at 7.30pm.