Steve Smith and Virat Kohli face off each other in match 33 of IPL 2020 as Rajasthan Royals meet Royal Challengers Bangalore in the reverse fixture in Dubai. This is the first of the two games to be played on a Super Saturday in the IPL. Delhi then plays Chennai in the second match of the day in Sharjah. Both teams come into this game losing their previous games. While Rajasthan lost to Delhi from a position of strength, Banglore lost to Punjab in a close encounter.
Rajasthan Royals gave away an easy chase against Delhi Capitals needing 39 to win from 30 deliveries. They chased down over against SRH to win the game in their previous encounter. Consistency has been the major problem for the Royals this season. They have given away two easy games and lost four points in the process.
Jos Buttler, Steve Smith and Sanju Samson, three big guns of the Royals have failed to bring in a consistency to their game. Their modes of dismissal have been surprising, to say the least. The trio will have to sort out their form going into the game against Delhi, who looks the most balanced team in the competition alongside Mumbai Indians.
Their bowling attack has lacked the penetration beyond Jofra Archer. None of the other bowlers have been able to back up the good work done by the England pacer. Shreyas Gopal and Rahul Tewatia have been providing good support to Archer.
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However, the rest of the bowlers have not been able to step up to the plate for the Royals. The move to open with Ben Stokes almost paid off in the last match. Only if Stokes would have not thrown his wicket away, Rajasthan would have had another win in their bag by now. One believes, against RCB it is this group of players who will have to perform if they are to win the game.
Meanwhile, RCB was beaten by Kings XI Punjab in their last match. Their score of 171 was never really challenging enough for the KXIP batting line-up. Punjab openers Rahul and Mayank set the perfect platform for Universe Boss Chris Gayle to announce his comeback in style.
Their move to send AB De Villiers at number six backfired badly and the skipper was questioned regarding the same as well. This was another example of RCB not making use of their resources to their advantage. They would have hopefully learnt their lesson from their previous game.
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Head to Head: Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
Out of the 22 games played between the two sides, Bangalore have won 10, while Royals nine. Banglore beat Rajasthan Royals by 8 wickets when both teams met in the first leg in Abu Dhabi. Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 72 in that game.
Pitch & Weather Conditions
The temperature will be in the high 30s in Abu Dhabi for the match. It’s a venue where the team batting first has won more often than not. With the bigger ground dimensions, teams batting second have found it tough to chase.
With the league stage getting into its second phase, pitches will get all the slower and strokeplay will become difficult on this wicket. With hardly any dew affecting the gams now, toss becomes a crucial and a deciding factor in the games going forward.
Team News
Rajasthan Royals will think of dropping Robin Uthappa after he was disappointing once again. He has been showing no intent in the games that he has played so far. RCB, on the other end, will not look to make any changes despite the defeat against KXIP.
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Squads
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, AB de Villiers (wk), Shivam Dube, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Washington Sundar, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Dale Steyn, Parthiv Patel, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Chris Morris, Pavan Deshpande, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Philippe, Shahbaz Ahmed
Rajasthan Royals
Steven Smith (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa, Mahipal Lomror, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Tom Curran, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, David Miller, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Varun Aaron, Aniruddha Joshi, Manan Vohra, Andrew Tye, Shashank Singh, Oshane Thomas, Mayank Markande, Anuj Rawat, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh, Ankit Rajpoot
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