Southern Derby: RCB take on CSK in a high-voltage encounter

Although cricket is about competitiveness, there are a few rivalries that keep us hooked to television screens. When the two powerhouses swamped with highly skilled cricketers square off against each other, the rivalry is sure to send the cricket watching world into a frenzy. The stakes will be higher when Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Chennai Super Kings in the much-awaited Southern derby on Saturday. Having finished on the wrong side of the result in the previous encounter, both teams will be eyeing a winning return at the Dubai International Stadium. 

With the venue observing preponderance of teams batting first and enjoying a fair share of success, we can very well expect the toss to have a major say in the game. 

Match Details 

Date: Saturday, 10 October

Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium 

Time: 7:30 PM (IST)

Form Guide 

Chennai Super Kings: WLLLWL 

Royal Challengers Bangalore: WLWWL 

Players to watch 

Spin duo - Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar 

The Royal Challengers will look towards its spin duo, Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal to inflict plenty of damage on CSK's batting line-up. Chahal, in particular, has been brilliant, providing breakthroughs at regular intervals. 

On the other hand, Washington Sundar might not have plenty of wickets to his column like his comrade, but his impressive economy rate of 4.80 elucidates that batsmen have found it hard to score runs off his bowling. 

Virat Kohli 

It is safe to say that the skipper is back into the groove having spent valuable time at the crease in the previous two encounters. It is very important for RCB as a team that Virat Kohli builds on the knock and scores runs on a consistent note. 

Devdutt Padikkal

The one batsman who has set the tone early in the innings is RCB's latest batting sensation, Devdutt Padikkal. The southpaw has shown considerable promise, scoring 178 runs in five matches. 

Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson 

A huge amount of onus will lie on the shoulders of the stalwarts upfront - Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis. The opening duo has shepherded the team, scoring bulk of the runs. With a tally of 299 runs, Faf stands as the second-highest run-getter of the tournament. The Chennai contingent will heave a sigh of relief with Shane Watson getting his rhythm right. 

Head to Head 

Matches: 24 

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 8

Chennai Super Kings: 15 

No Result: 1 

Squads

RCB: Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, AB de Villiers, Chris Morris, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shivam Dube, Aaron Finch, Umesh Yadav, Adam Zampa, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Dale Steyn, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Mann Singh, Isuru Udana, Devdutt Padikkal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Joshua Philippe, Pavan Deshpande.

CSK: MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu, K Asif, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Jagadeesan Narayan, Karn Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Monu Singh, Murali Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shane Watson, Shardul Thakur, Josh Hazlewood, Piyush Chawla, R Sai Kishore, Sam Curran.