RCB vs CSK 68th Match Prediction

RCB vs CSK Team Previews

Royal Challengers Bangalore

After an extremely poor first half, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have mounted a stunning comeback over the last couple of weeks. The team has won 5 matches on the bounce and climbed to the 5th place, keeping their qualification hopes alive.

A big win here will take them ahead of teams like CSK and DC, both of whose NRR isn’t the best.

Leading the attack is the indomitable Virat Kohli. He is the leading run-scorer for this season and has scored 3 half-centuries in his last 5 outings. More importantly, his strike-rate is 155.16 for the entire tournament and he has also smashed 33 sixes! 

Kohli’s opening partnership with Faf du Plessis is likely to set the tone for a big score. The team’s middle order has been dented a bit with Will Jacks returning back to England. But his departure does pave the way for Glenn Maxwell to make a comeback and prove his worth, especially as his form hasn’t been the best this season.

Is there a better big-match players than Glenn Maxwell to step in for RCB right now? We don't think so.

Rajat Patidar has played a couple of magnificent innings while Cameron Green and Dinesh Karthik have often proved invaluable as a finisher. RCB's batting lineup is living up to its reputation and we think it is far stronger than CSK's batting lineup right now.

Mohammed Siraj is peaking in form just at the right time and his opening spell with Yash Dayal will be important to keep the opposition batting under check. What the team lacks is a quality spin attack and that could cause them to leak runs during the middle overs. 

Cam Green, Glenn Maxwell, and Swapnil Singh may all be used to try and give Faf du Plessis some flexibility with his bowling attack. Lockie Ferguson has given away runs at 10.52 per over so far. He needs to come up with something special in this crucial match. 

Chennai Super Kings

This season has been sort of a mixed bag for the defending champions. CSK has won only 7 of their 13 matches so far. While a win here will almost certainly take them through to the next stage if CSK loses here, a lot will depend on the margin of the loss and also some of the other results.

Ruturaj Gaikwad has led his team from the front. He is the leading run-getter for CSK and is averaging 58.30 after 13 innings. He, along with Shivam Dube will be the key batsmen for the team. While there are some other quality batsmen in the CSK line-up including Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Ravindra Jadeja, and Sameer Rizvi, their form hasn’t been consistent enough.

With Moeen Ali likely to leave the team for international duties, Mitchell Santner may make a comeback in the middle order.

The key thing to remember that RCB's bowling lineup is not very good. CSK has an opportunity to be able to change things around in this match for sure.

Simarjeet Singh is proving to be a valuable asset for the team as he has picked up 5 wickets in 3 games. He will join Tushar Deshpande and Shardul Thakur in the pace department while Maheesh Theekshana and Jadeja are likely to feature in the spin attack. 

CSK has been able to maximize its bowling resources so far and taken out more than what we expected from them so far.