What

Royal Challengers Bangalore will be pitted against the Delhi Capitals in Match 20 of VIVO IPL 2019.

The Royal Challengers, yet to register a win this season, are placed at the bottom of the pile. That it has been a disastrous season so far is putting it mildly. RCB are staring at problems aplenty; it appears the team management isn’t sure about their first-choice XI, those picked in the XI don’t know their roles, the majority ofbowlers have been woeful, and the catching has been sloppy. The poor results must have left captain Virat Kohli and coach Gary Kirsten frustrated, and the pair must be digging deep in search of that one combination and that one formula that can get them a win.

Against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday night – in a match they should have won after setting a target of 206 – RCB were blown away by Andre Russell. RCB had the match in their hand, but their bowlers were dismal in the last three overs, repeatedly bowling length deliveries to one of the fiercest strikers in the competition. RCB have a good batting line-up – which includes two of the best batsmen of this generation: Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. Unless their fast bowling department cracks the T20 code, they will lose more matches than they will win.

The Delhi Capitals’ journey this season is about them not adapting to conditions and their young batsmen not applying themselves. DC have two wins from five matches this season; after defeating the Mumbai Indians in their season opener and stealing two points off Kolkata Knight Riders in the Super Over, they’ve lost their last two matches – against Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad. The owners have invested in youth, and it is up to the youngsters to become better cricketers with every passing game.

The one thing always held against Prithvi Shaw and Rishabh Pant is their inconsistency; for the immense talent they possess, they cannot be winning only one or two of every ten matches. The inconsistency of the batsmen can be established from the fact that not one Delhi Capitals batsman has made two scores of 45 or more this season.

Just a fortnight into the season, RCB are staring at a dire equation; they need to win at least seven of their remaining nine matches to stay in contention for a playoff spot. Will they be able to open their account here? Or will the Delhi Capitals add to RCB’s misery and take two points from this away fixture?

When

7 April 2019, 4pm IST

Where

M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

Previous Match XIs:

Royal Challengers Bangalore:Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Marcus Stoinis, Moeen Ali, Akshdeep Nath, Yuzvendra Chahal, Pawan Negi, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Tim Southee.

Delhi Capitals:Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Colin Ingram, Chris Morris, Axar Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Tewatia, Ishant Sharma, Sandeep Lamichhane.

Protagonists

Who else but Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. The duo was in sparkling form in the previous match against the Knight Riders. Kohli’s 84 and de Villiers’ 63 wasn’t enough to get RCB their first win of the season. One hopes the two players will look away from the disappointment, and instead get motivated by the loss and read the situation as if the team needed them to do more with the bat.

For Delhi Capitals, Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer need to hold fort. If the conditions at the Chinnaswamy Stadium are as good as they were on Friday night, one can expect young Shaw and Pant to cause a lot of damage – but only if they give themselves some time.

Among the bowlers, the ones capable of causing most damage are the Delhi Capitals speedster Kagiso Rabada(7 wickets this season) and the RCB leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (9 wickets this season, economy rate 6.45).

Head to Head in Indian Premier League

Overall: Matches – 21,Royal Challengers Bangalore – 14, Delhi Capitals – 6, No Result – 1.

Since 2011: Matches – 15, Royal Challengers Bangalore – 13, Delhi Capitals – 1, No Result – 1

Trivia

The overall economy rates of RCB’s quick bowlers has steadily worsened in the last few years; in 2015 the overall economy rate of their quicks was 8.19, in 2016 it was 8.91, in 2017 it was 8.88 and in 2018 it was 9.01.So far in 2019, it is 9.32.

DC’s Kagiso Rabada and RCB’s Navdeep Saini have bowled the two fastest deliveries in VIVO IPL 2019.

Virat Kohli has scored more runs against the Delhi Capitals than against any other IPL opponent; he has scored 761 runs in 18 innings at an average of 69.18.

AB de Villiers has a fantastic record in IPL matches against the Delhi Capitals; he has scored 396 runs in 9 innings, has an average of 79.20, and a strike-rate of 174.44. In his two innings last season, he scored 90* (39 balls) in Bengaluru, and followed it up with 72* (37 balls) in Delhi.

Rishabh Pant’s scores against RCB read: 1, 57, 45, 85 and 61.