Match 19, IPL Season 9, April 24, 2016
The first match of this super Sunday is between the new franchise Gujarat Lions and Royal Challengers Bangalore. The match will be held at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot and will begin at 4pm, IST. After a dream start of three consecutive victories in the first three matches played, GL faced a 10 wicket defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday. They would be looking to get back to winning ways against the Challengers.
GL have a strong batting line up with the likes of Aaron Finch, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina, Dinest Karthik and Dwayne Bravo. Opener Aaron Finch has shown tremendous form with 3 consecutive fifties, on the other hand his partner Brendon McCullum is yet to show is full capabilities. The team needs this destructive opening pair to fire tomorrow and give their side a decent platform. The skipper Raina also looked good in the last game, hitting his first fifty of this edition of IPL. The bowlers have done a decent job till now. All they need to do is gather their focus back and leave the last game behind them.
Visitors RCB are coming into this game after a win over Rising Pune Supergiants. In the season, where 14 out of 16 games till now have been won by the team batting second, RCB are the only team to win 2 matches batting first by putting a mammoth score on the board. The confidence would certainly be high in the camp with skipper Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers again scoring 70+ score and putting 100+ partnership yet again. The duo seems unstoppable and are a major key to team’s success. The big man, Chris Gayle is expected to rejoin the team who had gone back to West Indies to be with his partner and new born daughter.
RCB’s main concern is their bowling attack which was well below their standards against Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians. Watson, Richardson and Binny need to fire against the Lions to give their team an edge.
As this is the first ever match between the two teams, we wouldn’t be able to provide the head-to-head comparison.
Players to look out for Gujarat Lions:
- Aaron Finch: Barring his last innings, Finch has been in great form and has given his team a good start in all the matches. He would be hoping to continue the same.
- Suresh Raina: The skipper looked in good touch in the last game. We hope he continues from where he left in the previous match.
- Dwayne Bravo: It’s impossible to keep the West Indians out of the T20 games. It time Bravo gives his fan a treat to watch.
Players to look out for Royal Challengers Bangalore:
- Virat Kohli: With another cracker of an innings, the Indian star would be hoping to continue with his good form that he has shown till now.
- AB de Villiers: Well he certainly doesn’t seem to do anything wrong these days. He has show his sheer Class. We are hoping to see an entertaining innings from the Proteas.
- Shane Watson: We are agains picking Watson for his bowling. He is crucial in stopping the opponent batsmen.
Squads:
Gujarat Lions: Suresh Raina (captain), Sarabjit Ladda, Akshdeep Nath, Amit Mishra, Dwayne Bravo, Paras Dogra, Eklavya Dwivedi, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Shivil Kaushik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Brandon McCullum, Pradeep Sangwan, Jaydev Shah, Umang Sharma, Dwayne Smith, Dale Styne, Pravin Tambe and Andrew Tye.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (captain), Varun Aaron, Abu Nechi, S Arvind, Stuart Binny, Yuzuvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers, Praveen Dubey, Chris Gayle, Travis head, Iqbal Abdulla, Kedar Jadhav, Akshay Karnewar, Sarfraz Khan, Vikramjeet Malik, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Harshal Patel, Lokesh Rahul (wicketkeeper), Parveez Rasool, Kane Richardson, Sachin Baby, Vikas Tokas, Shane Watson, David Wiese and Tabraiz Shamsi.
Well this certainly is going to be a nail biting match. Both teams would be looking for a win and move up the points table in the early days of the tournament. We are hoping this match make our weekend even more awesome.
Watch AB de Villiers thrash opponents in an older match of RCB:
