Mumbai: Royal Challengers Bangalore will look for their fourth win on the trot when they take on Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League on Thursday (April 22) at the Wankhede where the batters would be licking their lips to have a go at the bowlers.
AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell lit up the afternoon in their last game powering RCB to 204/4 against Kolkata Knight Riders. The swashbuckling Protea tore apart the KKR bowling willowing a 34 ball 76 before Kyle Jamieson (3/41) and Harshal Patel (2/17) got the job done for their side registering a 38 run victory.
The Maxwell-ABD duo will take the most of the spotlight in Thursday’s game as they have been outstanding this season with the Aussie all-rounder particularly looking more dangerous piling on 176 runs in three matches with an average of 58.67.
However, at Wankhede it will be interesting to see how captain Kohli uses his bowlers in a batting paradise with the likes of Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler and David Miller in the opposing camp. The skipper also will look to step up his game with willow this time regaining his form in the tournament.
On the other side, things for Rajasthan though didn’t work out as they might have planned. They will come on the back of a disappointing 45-run loss against Chennai Super Kings. A shock battling collapse after a Jos Buttler (49) storm lead them down to reach the target of 189 after CSK piled on a mammoth 188/9 tearing a lacklustre bowling performance.
Sanju Samson in his debut season as captain has already experienced a tough time. Lack of strength in the middle order proved quite costly for them in this season being unable to hold on to a good start. Ben Stokes injury is a big blow to the side who used to give an extra edge ailing both in batting and bowling.
The bowlers, Apart from youngster Chetan Sakariya who has been quite good, have to careful this time against a formidable batting line-up of Bangalore who on their day can put away any bowling unit.
