Although the DD vs RCB IPL clash might seem like a battle of the two bottom placed teams, there is a tiny glimmer of hope that these teams can still make it to the final four – although it would require several permutations of results going their way. For starters, a loss at the Feroz Shah Kotla will definitely end the Daredevils’ chances, and all but kill any of Royal Challengers’ chances of progressing to the playoffs.

CURRENT FORM

DELHI DAREDEVILS come in to this game at the back of two consecutive losses against Sunrisers Hyderabad. In Hyderabad, the Daredevils took the game to the penultimate ball after Shaw and Iyer powered them to 163. In the return leg at home, it was the bowling unit that disappointed as Sunrisers chased down 187 with 9 wickets and 7 balls to spare.

The ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE also come in to this game at the back of two consecutive losses – one to Sunrisers Hyderabad and the other to Chennai Super Kings. In both these games, the famed batting line-up of the Royal Challengers failed to live up to their name scoring just 127 and 141 in their allotted 20 overs.

HEAD TO HEAD

While the Royal Challengers clearly enjoy a head to head advantage over the Daredevils, this stat only gets better when you consider the recent history. Since 2011, RCB have just lost once in their last 13 encounters against the Daredevils.

At the Feroz Shah Kotla, RCB enjoy a 5-2 lead over the Daredevils, including a win in each of their last five visits to the ground.

VENUE AND CONDITIONS

The Feroz Shah Kotla has yielded more than 9 runs per over this IPL, and is the most batting friendly venue in the tournament so far. Interestingly, before the Sunrisers chased down 189 with ease, all the previous three games were won by the team batting first. It would be no surprise if the captain that wins the toss elects to take first strike.

TEAM NEWS

DELHI DAREDEVILS

Despite the loss to Sunrisers, the Daredevils are not expected to make any major changes. Given Ab De Villiers’ troubles against left arm spin, Shahbaz Nadeem will keep his place. Liam Plunkett has been expensive in every second game, and we may get to see Junior Dala make his IPL debut. Jason Roy might get an extended run despite his failure against SRH.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Moeen Ali did a decent job with the ball on his IPL debut, but that seemed to hamper the RCBs combination. Quinton De Kock is likely to return to the top of the order in his place with Washington Sundar expected to take over the spinner’s role with Vohra dropping to the bench. Grandhomme has done enough to cement his spot for the time being, and so has Mandeep Singh

EXPECTED XI

DELHI DAREDEVILS

Prithvi Shaw, Jason Roy, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Glenn Maxwell, Vijay Shankar, Harshal Patel, Liam Plunkett/Junior Dala, Amit Mishra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Trent Boult

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Quinton De Kock, Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, Ab De Villiers, Mandeep Singh, Colin De Grandhomme, Washington Sundar, Tim Southee, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj

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CHAHAL vs DD TOP ORDER

Jason Roy’s struggles against leg spin is well known. RCB employed Chahal to bowl in the Powerplay in the fixture at the Chinnaswamy and it reaped fantastic rewards. In 8 balls against Chahal, Roy failed to score a single run and eventually gave his wicket to the leggie. It will be no surprise if Kohli implements this strategy again!

Glenn Maxwell is another batsman against who Chahal has a fantastic record. In 41 deliveries to Maxwell across all formats, Chahal has dismissed Maxwell a staggering seven times and has conceded 35 runs in them.

Chahal picked up both Roy and Maxwell in the reverse fixture at Bangalore, and is a certain fantasy pick for this fixture.

RISHABH PANT vs LEG SPIN

One batsman who does not have any such trouble against leg spin is Rishabh Pant and he has scored 66 runs at a strike rate of 183.3 against the top leg spinners this season, just getting out once.

Also, Rishabh Pant is known to have a liking for RCB having scored 57, 45 and 85 in the last encounters against them.

AB DE VILLIERS vs DAREDEVILS

RCB have won two of the three games that Ab De Villiers has scored a fifty. In comparison to this, they have lost all three games where Kohli has crossed 50. This shows the impact that an Ab De Villiers innings can have on a game. In the reverse fixture against the Daredevils, Ab De Villiers launched a stunning counterattack scoring an unbeaten 90 of just 39 balls to seal the game for RCB. In 8 innings against the Daredevils, Ab De Villiers averages 64.80 having scored three 50s and if he can get going again, it will be difficult to stop a RCB rampage.

TEAMS

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Manan Vohra, Parthiv Patel(w), Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers, Moeen Ali, Mandeep Singh, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Quinton de Kock, Brendon McCullum, Chris Woakes, Washington Sundar, Murugan Ashwin, Corey Anderson, Sarfaraz Khan, Kulwant Khejroliya, Aniket Choudhary, Navdeep Saini, Pawan Negi, Aniruddha Joshi, Pavan Deshpande

DELHI DAREDEVILS

Prithvi Shaw, Jason Roy, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Glenn Maxwell, Vijay Shankar, Liam Plunkett, Amit Mishra, Harshal Patel, Shahbaz Nadeem, Trent Boult, Colin Munro, Rahul Tewatia, Avesh Khan, Gautam Gambhir, Mohammed Shami, Daniel Christian, Jayant Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Manjot Kalra, Abhishek Sharma, Sandeep Lamichhane, Naman Ojha, Sayan Ghosh, Junior Dala

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