IPL 2017: RCB Bowls First Against Pune; Chris Gayle, Tymal Mills Dropped
Apr 16, 2017 at 8:15 PM
In the second crunch game of the ‘Super Sunday’ in Bangalore, Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and decided to bowl first. The decision was obviously based on the batting friendly conditions and the dew advantage, that will favour RCB batsmen when they come out to bat in the second innings.
The home side was forced to make two changes, as unwell Tymal Mills was not included and was replaced by Adam Milne. In the other change, Shane Watson replaced Chris Gayle. The change was inevitable keeping in mind Gayle’s form in the tournament till now.
Rising Pune Supergiant also made two changes in the side, bolstering their pace attack, as Daniel Christian and Jaydev Unadkat walked in the side replacing Lockie Ferguson and Ankit Sharma.
The battle between the two teams will be the contest of the week, keeping in mind the rivalry between the two captains in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that preceded the T20 tournament.
Here is what both the skippers said at the time of the toss –
Steven Smith:
“We’d have fielded as well It’s a good chasing wicket and like a good wicket. Hopefully, we put a good first innings total and defend it later. We have to turn things around score and chase it down. Unadkat comes in for Ankit Sharma and Danny Christian replaces Lockie Ferguson.”
Virat Kohli:
“We’ll chase. Looks like a much better wicket. There’s gonna be dew later as well. It was too dry. Looks like a typical Bangalore wicket. We played well against Delhi. It was a game of margins. We fought pretty hard with a low total. We are gonna be more expressive today.”
Here is the playing XI of both the teams –
Rising Pune Supergiant (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Tripathi, Steven Smith(c), Ben Stokes, Manoj Tiwary, MS Dhoni(w), Daniel Christian, Rahul Chahar, Imran Tahir, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Mandeep Singh, AB de Villiers, Kedar Jadhav(w), Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Pawan Negi, Samuel Badree, Adam Milne, Sreenath Aravind, Yuzvendra Chahal.