IPL-2023: Royal Challengers Bangalore to take on Rajasthan Royals at Bengaluru

In IPL Cricket, today, Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on Rajasthan Royals at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru at 03:30 pm.

About 24 hours ahead of Sunday’s afternoon fixture at the Chinnaswamy stadium, scenes from practice on either side of the pitch typified the venue. On one side, Jos Buttler repeatedly sent balls from Ravichandran Ashwin and Adam Zampa high into the stands – the sound of his bat meeting the ball echoing in the empty vessel of a stadium that will be a throbbing cauldron at match time. On the other side, Harshal Patel was treated disdainfully everytime he missed his yorkers by a whisker. It was reaffirmation of what the venue truly offers – uninhibited batting and bowling baptism by fire.

The trip down south from Jaipur brings respite for the table toppers, for they were choked for runs at their own home by Lucknow SuperGiants just three days ago. The stadium that had a joint-record tally of 33 sixes hit, albeit in the night game, on April 17 will please Buttler to no end as he comes in at the back of a rare, scratchy innings where LSG kept the RR dasher down to a measly strike rate of 97.56.

However, the one inference to draw for Buttler & Co. from the RCB-CSK sixathon here is that the home team is well-equipped to match his side in unleashing their batting brawn. The RCB troika of Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell are scoring at 166.50, 142.34 and 195.55 respectively, this season and have accounted for 74 % of their team’s runs.

That sixes will be hit and hit repeatedly is the most obvious prediction for the venue of this size and two teams that start with an identical pomp (9.44 strike rate in the PowerPlay). But even where margins are minimal, they have a bowler each – Trent Boult and Mohammed Siraj – capable of flipping the venue narrative on its head and dictating the direction the game takes at the start.