It couldn't get much worse for RCB, who on Sunday were bowled out for 49 in 9.4 overs in pursuit of a target of 132 against Kolkata Knight Riders to drop below Gujarat Lions to last place on the IPL leaderboard. They next face defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.
RCB and SRH met in last season's final, where SRH won to claim the title for the first time. The two teams then inaugurated IPL 2017, where David Warner's SRH made it two out of two in what was a one-sided opener to the tournament. Since then, the teams have gone in opposite directions. SRH have remained in the top three - occupying each spot at some point or the other - while RCB have lost five of seven games. Their campaign has reached the stage where each match is virtually a must-win, but with Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle in the same side anything is possible.
SRH, coming off a narrow defeat to Rising Pune Supergiant, will hope to make it a hat-trick of wins over RCB to move draw level with KKR on 10 points.
Team News:
RCB
After 49 all out, batting changes are needed. Mandeep Singh, with an average of 10.83 after six innings, looks likeliest to be cut from the batting order. Sachin Baby or Vishnu Vinod are the candidates to fill in. Stuart Binny also has poor numbers, and could be replaced by Harpreet Singh.
SRH
Pace bowler Siddharth Kaul has overall been good in the back end of matches, but was taken for 45 in three overs against RPS, while the rookie Mohammed Siraj went wicketless in four overs that cost 45 (though he had two catches put down). One of the two could be benched as SRH ponder recalling Ashish Nehra. Yuvraj Singh has had three days to recover fro the illness that sidelined him, and his return means that Washington Sundar goes back to the dugout.
Stats
- Warner needs one more catch to level with SRH's record holder, Shikhar Dhawan (26).
- SRH have two batsmen in the top ten run-getters' list, Warner (282) and Dhawan (235). RCB's leading run-scorer is Kedar Jadhav with 175.
- Despite being at the bottom of the table, RCB's bowlers have taken 44 wickets to SRH's 43.
Head to head record: SRH 10-RCB 4
