RCB seek return to winning ways against visiting LSG

Despite falling short of the finish line against the Kolkata Knight Riders, RCB will be hoping to bounce back to winning ways when they meet the Lucknow Super Giants at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. With bowling being a significant area of concern, RCB will possibly be keeping an eye on the alternatives that can be slotted in.

LSG will be coming fresh to this fixture on the back of a comprehensive win against the Punjab Kings. It was an all-round show from the Super Giants as they secured their first win of the campaign. With a victory in the bag to open their account, in all likelihood, the Super Giants will possibly like to maintain a winning combination.

Virat Kohli will be hopeful of continuing that remarkable form of his while RCB will be pinning their hopes on Faf du Plessis to get back to scoring ways. With the home team also boasting of a strong pool of players on the bench, it will be interesting to see if they do make any changes to the XI.

Venue Watch

Batting first has been slightly tricky at the Chinnaswamy while dew has played a crucial impact in the second innings that has turned the surface into a featherbed. Medium fast bowlers have been the pick of the lot with their cutters and back of the hand deliveries but pacers continue to struggle.

Personal battles to watch out for:

Cameron Green vs Ravi Bishnoi:

Cameron Green is still to don his boots of dynamicity as he looked in fine touch in the last game. Scoring a 33 which has been his highest so far, Green gave a glimpse of what can be expected from him if he gets going. Ravi Bishnoi hasn’t been at his best in this year’s IPL. With just a solitary wicket and an economy rate of 9, Bishnoi is still to find his rhythm. However, given the fact that Green hasn’t yet fired, this contest can be an entertaining one.

Virat Kohli vs Naveen ul Haq

Virat Kohli is currently leading the charts of the run-scorers for RCB in the IPL with 181 runs scored at an average of 90.50. However, lack of proper support from the other end has somewhat left Kohli stranded at one end. This rivalry with Naveen-ul-Haq kicked off in last year’s IPL and since then, the decibels have gone down for sure but when these two hit the stride against each other, expect sparks to fly. Naveen-ul-Haq has claimed two wickets so far.

Glenn Maxwell vs Marcus Stoinis

This duel of the two Aussie all-rounders is going to be one to savour. Maxwell got back to runs in the last game with a breezy 28 and has claimed two wickets so far already. Marcus Stoinis is still to find that destructive song of his while he hasn’t yet been handed over the ball. But then on a day when Stoinis gets going or let’s say Maxi comes out all blasters blazing, expect a frenzy of brilliance to take centerstage in Namma Chinnaswamy.

Match details:

Match: Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Lucknow Super Giants

Venue: M Chinnaswamy Stadium

Date: 2nd April, 2024

Time: 7:30 PM

Head-to-head:

Matches played: 4

RCB: 3

LSG: 1

Squads:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru:

Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.

Lucknow Super Giants:

KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Krunal Pandya, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, K. Gowtham, Shivam Mavi, Arshin Kulkarni, M. Siddharth, Ashton Turner, David Willey, Mohd. Arshad Khan.