The Royal Challengers Bangalore have got a foot in the door to the playoffs with their tense win over the defending champions Mumbai Indians. They cannot afford to lose another match and the game with their southern neighbours Chennai Super Kings gives them the perfect opportunity to get one more win under their belts. Chennai come down to play the game after a thrashing from the Kolkata Knight Riders. They faltered while batting when they were unable to go from a position of 90 at the halfway stage to a score closer to 200.
The way Kolkata overhauled the target of 177 with more than two overs left to be bowled meant that even a 200 score would not have been safe.
What though a score near 200 does is put pressure on the opposition to start well and maintain a scoring rate near 10 runs an over. An early wicket or two puts additional pressure on the chasing team.
Dhoni will have to re-look the tactic of sending Faf du Plessis up the order for it means that the in-form batsman and orange cap holder Ambati Rayudu gets less overs to play. He also has to look for the big shots before getting set and that’s never easy.
His non-use of Dwayne Bravo at Eden as a batsman also was hard to understand as the Trinidadian has been in cracking form with both bat and ball than Ravindra Jadeja who is struggling a bit as could be seen with those two dropped catches off Sunil Narine. The Royal Challengers will be hoping that AB de Villiers is fit to play as he is a game-changer non-parallel. Their openers Quinton de Kock and Brendon McCullum are just finding their rhythm which is not good news for the bowlers with Virat Kohli batting imperiously and AB to follow.