Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) takes on Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 19th match of the tournament, RCB and DC are so far the best two teams of the tournament, both the teams have won 3 matches out of the total of 4 matches played.
Head to Head
The Head to Head between these two teams is heavily in favour of RCB.
In total, they have played 23 matches out of which RCB have won 14 matches while DC have won only 8 matches, 1 match was abandoned.
In the last four matches played between these two teams, both the teams have won 2 matches each.
If we talk about their matches in 2019, DC have defeated RCB in both their matches.
Squads
Top Players of RCB & DC
RCB:
V Kohli: The RCB captain finally gets the monkey off his back, after failure with the bat in the first 3 matches scored a match-winning 72 off 53 balls against SRH. His return of form could spell doom for the opposition specifically when his team is batting second. He is arguably best batsman while chasing.
AB de Villiers: Four matches, two fifties, two not outs, one man of the match award, and RCB winning 3 out of the 4 matches played in the tournament, seems like things are working pretty good for Mr.360 and his franchise. This superstar of RCB has scored 146 runs at an average of 73 and a strike rate of 178 this year.
A Finch: Apart from the fifty against MI he hasn't played as well as expected from him. The good thing for RCB is that despite this they are well placed in the points table. The class player that he is, things should only improve from now on.
Y Chahal: He won the battle against S Samson in the previous game getting him out caught and bowled against RR and picked up two more wickets to bag the second Man of the Match award of this season. He is also the top wicket-taker of IPL 2020. Y Chahal versus Iyer should be an exciting dual to watch in this match.
D Padikkal: This youngster has had a dream IPL career start, he has scored 174 runs at an average of 43.50 and a strike rate of 134.88. If these stats don't look fantastic already, one should know that he has scored a fifty in 3 out of the 4 innings he has batted.
DC:
S Iyer: He took full advantage of small boundaries of Sharjah cricket ground and slammed 6 sixes against KKR to return to form. There were questions asked about his batting strike rate which he answered with his bat scoring 88 runs of 38 balls at a strike rate of 231.58 against KKR.
M Stoinis: He was slammed all over the park in the previous match but bowled a decent last over to seal the win for his team against KKR. He was instrumental in the first match win against KXIP but after that hasn't performed great.
R Pant: He along with S Iyer struggled with his strike rate against SRH but like S Iyer he too scored quickly against KKR. He has played a few good cameos for DC so far in the tournament but is yet to score a fifty in the tournament. Tonight could be his night.
K Rabada: He along with M Shami, Y Chahal & T Boult has picked up eight wickets each which make him one of the leading wicket-takers of the tournament. Apart from his performance in the previous match, he has been exceptional with the ball. T-20 cricket can be very unfair for the bowlers before the game against KKR his bowling figures were 3 matches, 7 wickets, 75 runs off 12 overs, making his bowling average of 10.71 and economy rate of 6.25. After the game with KKR, his figures look drastically different; his economy rate went up by 1.62 that makes him look a much more expensive bowler than he usually is.
S Dhawan: He is another batsman who has failed to capitalize on good starts that he has got while batting. He has played second fiddle to P Shaw in two matches and has done enough to retain his place at the top but sooner or later he needs to score big for DC to have complete confidence on him.
Likely Playing 11
Player to watch out for
S Dube(RCB): He has silently done his job in almost every match that he has played. With the bat, he has scored at a strike rate of 153 and has picked up 4 wickets in 7 overs that he has bowled.
R Ashwin(DC): He is back to playing and is fit for DC again, his bowling could be very crucial against the likes of Kohli and de Villiers.
W Sundar(RCB): It would be interesting to see him pit against P Shaw and S Dhawan at the beginning of DC innings, especially Dhawan as he is a good player of spin bowling. It is to be seen if he Kohli will open the bowling with him or not.
On paper, both the sides look equally strong. Both teams have won their previous encounter comfortably and the team winning today's match is sure of being at the top of the IPL table. Historically, RCB has always looked dangerous with the bat, but this time around with their spin bowlers have been exceptional and could make a big difference in today's match.