All eyes will be on Virat Kohli, captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), who has failed to fire so far in the 13th IPL, when his team clashes with Rajasthan Royals (RR) here on Saturday. He has managed just 18 runs in three matches and it is high time he played a big knock. Will it be a ‘Saturday Special’ innings from him?
With two wins each from three games, both RCB and RR will aim to outdo each other when they square-off at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium here on Saturday. Despite having equal number of points (four), the Steve Smith-led RR are sitting at the fourth spot, a place above the Kohli captained RCB (run rate -1.450), thanks to their better net run-rate (-0.219). RR won their first two games that they played in Sharjah, the smallest of the three venues being used, and then they faltered against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their previous match in Dubai.
After the first two convincing wins, KKR handed RR a reality check and their top-order with the likes of Sanju Samson, skipper Smith, and Jos Buttler failed to keep the momentum flowing. Young sensation Rahul Tewatia, too, disappointed and same was the case with Robin Uthappa, who has completely failed to fire in this season so far, having managed just 16 runs from three games. It’s not that RR doesn’t possess a quality batting attack; they just failed to adapt to the conditions in Dubai, which has a far bigger boundary than Sharjah and Smith’s team will look to learn from their mistakes to muscle out RCB on Saturday.
In another match, two time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will aim to complete a hat-trick of wins in the 13th IPL when they lock horns with Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium here on Saturday. Both teams have four points each from three matches and they will look to consolidate their positions on the points table when the second match of Saturday begins here.
The first match of the day is between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals in Abu Dhabi. While KKR are at the third spot, DC is a rung above. The Shreyas Iyer-led DC launched their campaign on a positive note after winning their first two games, but lost their way against SunRisers Hyderbad (SRH) in their previous match. KKR, on the other side, were at the receiving end in the season opener against defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) before the Dinesh Karthikled side made a comeback in their next two games to register comprehensive wins against SRH and Rajasthan Royals.