Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will be hosting struggling Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 20th match of the Indian Premier League 2023 at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday 15. Royal Challengers Bangalore’s inconsistent start continued as they lost a last-ball thriller against Lucknow Super Giants in their last game. Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, and Glenn Maxwell scored brilliant half-centuries to help Bangalore score 212/2 while batting first.
But the bowlers struggled again as Lucknow chased the target with a wicket remaining. Wayne Parnell took three wickets on his debut while Mohammad Siraj and Harshal Patel also shone with a ball but all struggled to maintain economical spells. With a defeat, Bangalore are currently placed in the seventh position with a win and two defeats in IPL 2023. Meanwhile, Wanindy Hasaranga, last season’s leading wicket-taker for the team, is available for the selection and might replace pacer David Willey.
Delhi Capitals suffered their fourth straight defeat of the season as they lost against Mumbai Indians in their last game in a last-ball thriller. Delhi managed to score 172 runs while batting first with skipper David Warner recording another fifty and Axar Patel bringing his maiden IPL half-century. They almost managed to defend the total after a late comeback but Mumbai walked away with two big points. Delhi might bring in Phil Salt for Rovman Powell after the latter’s struggles with a bat in the first few games while Khaleel Ahmed is also expected to return to the playing eleven if they bowl first.
PROBABLE PLAYING XI
Royal Challengers Bangalore
F du Plessis(C), Virat Kohli, MK Lomror, GJ Maxwell, W Hasaranga, Shahbaz Ahmed, WD Parnell, Dinesh Karthik(wk), Mohammed Siraj, HV Patel, KV Sharma
BENCH : Anuj Rawat, RM Patidar, SS Prabhudessai, Finn Allen, Avinash Singh, Rajan Kumar, Michael Bracewell, M Bhandage, R Sonu Yadav, DJ Willey, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, S Kaul, RJW Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Vijaykumar Vyshak, WG Jacks
Delhi Capitals
David Warner(C), Manish Pandey, Abishek Porel, P Shaw, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, PD Salt(wk), A Nortje, KL Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Mustafizur Rahman
BENCH : RR Rossouw, Rovman Powell, KK Ahmed, SN Khan, Aman Hakim Khan, P Dubey, Ishant Sharma, MR Marsh, Yash Dhull, Ripal Patel, KL Nagarkoti, L Ngidi, Vicky Ostwal, C Sakariya
INJURY AND AVAILABILITY NEWS
Wanindu Hasaranga is available for the selection and is expected to replace David Willey for Bangalore while Phil Salt is expected to get a nod ahead of Rovman Powell.
PITCH REPORT
The pitch at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium offers a batting-friendly surface in T20 cricket. The average first innings score here is 192 and teams easily scored 200-plus totals in both innings in the last game at the venue.
