The Match:
This is the 69th game of the Indian Premier League and will see the Royal Challengers Bangalore host the Chennai Super Kings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Both sides have already qualified for the playoffs but the winner of this game will also end up at the top of the points table.
How the two teams match up: The Royal Challengers Bangalore have 17 points whereas Chennai have 18. A win for Bangalore will push them to 19 while Chennai will end at 20. However, it is not only the win that matters, the losing team will probably not go through in the top two as well.
If Chennai lose, then they will hope that the Mumbai Indians can beat the Kolkata Knight Riders, because given the far superior net run rate, the Super Kings will still end up in the top two. On the other hand, if Bangalore loses, then they will be left with 17 points which means that if either of the sides wins between Mumbai and Kolkata, they will be through to the next stage at the top two spots.
Ground Conditions: One can expect the pitch at Bangalore to be hard and bouncy, but the important thing will be the weather. There have been rains in the city off and on, and if this one gets rained out, things will begin to look very different in the points table.
The Teams: The Chennai Super Kings seemed to have unearthed a new talent in Wriddhiman Saha who won the man of the match award in the game against the Kochi Tuskers Kerala for his superb knock towards the end of the innings. On the other hand, the middle-order’s changed looks also keeps the side fresh what with the likes of Saha and Dwayne Bravo looking to complement the side well.
Bangalore have almost shown that they rely heavily on the prowess of Chris Gayle. Gayle did not have a great build-up to the game last time and got out for a duck but will hope that he can get going again. The rest of the batsmen, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, need to bat out normally as they usually do.
Zaheer Khan should be back for this one.
Players to look out for: The Bangalore team will look to Saurabh Tiwary to get something going while Chennai could be assisted by S Badrinath in this game.
Prediction: Good, tough encounter which could go right down to the wire.