RCB vs GL Match Prediction
Suresh Raina-led Gujarat Lions will be seeking to get back on winning terms when they take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in front of their home crowd in Rajkot. The two teams did not get to the best of the starts managing to get only one win a piece under their belt till now.
While RCB sits at the bottom position with one win from their 5 matches, Lions hold the penultimate spot playing a game less than their counterparts.
No doubt it will be a hard fought encounter as there will be an immense pressure on both the sides to bring back glory to their respective franchise and justify their talent considering the number of big names both sides hold.
Overview:
GL:
They have done well with the bat in a previous couple of outings, with the top order amongst the runs. However, it has been their bowling attack which has let them down. Andrew Tye did manage to pull out a hat-trick against RPS. But they have surely missed the services of experienced campaigners like Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo in their initial couple of outings.
RCB:
Challengers have not managed to play as a unit so far. The team consisting of heavyweights have not been able to stand up to the expectations. However, the likes of Samuel Badree, Adam Milne, Aravind have done a decent job with the ball in the past two games, although it came in the losing cause.
View on Think Tank:
GL:
A major worry for Lions is their bowling. They are leaking runs heavily in the powerplay which in turn is creating additional pressure. Praveen Kumar has been particularly expensive in the past couple of outings and he has been taken all over the park. The captain can try Dhawal Kulkarni as an alternative for that matter.
With Ravindra Jadeja back in the squad and Dwayne Bravo expected to come back shortly, Gujarat have a hope of bettering their chances.
RCB:
Their batting has been a major worry. Barring AB de Villiers’ 89 runs against KXIP there is nothing much to mention in their batting so far. Mandeep Singh’s poor run has been continuing. They can take into account Vishnu Vinod, as the man from Kerala has had an impressive Ranji Season. Shane Watson too has been out of form from the beginning of the tournament both with the bat and ball, except the penultimate over which he bowled to Amit Mishra in their clash against DD. RCB management can go for Travis Head for that matter. The bowlers have been doing a good job and the captain needs to get his permutation and combination right.
Strengths:
GL:
They have a pretty good batting line up which can derail any bowling attack on a given day. The likes of Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Aaron Finch can give a nightmare to any bowling units. Besides, they have Ravindra Jadeja in their middle order who can come quite handy both with the bat and ball, especially in the death overs.
RCB:
Royal Challengers too have a humongous batting line with big names in the form of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers etc. All of them have the ability to change the fate of the match single handedly. However, the story for RCB has been pretty sorry in the 10th edition of IPL. They need to pull up their socks and the captain needs to take the responsibilities on his shoulder if he wants to see his team through.
Head to Head:
Lions and Challengers have met previously on three occasions. Bangalore have outplayed Gujarat twice on that occasion, including once in the playoffs where AB De Villiers took Bangalore over the line from the jaws of defeat.
Virat Kohli has scored two centuries against Raina and his men in the last two league outings and he will be an important player to watch out for, considering their hasn’t been many changes to the bowling attack of Gujarat as far names are concerned.
Prediction:
It will be a hard-fought game between both the sides and both of them would like to get their second win of the season. The pitch is expected to be good for batting throughout and we can expect a run feast taking into consideration the batting line up both the sides possess. Hard to predict the results, but I would put my money on Gujarat Lions considering the fact they are playing on their home turf.