Royal Challengers primed for the double against Super Kings
Virat Kohli's men are in form. MS Dhoni's men aren't. Sunday pits them together again
Big picture
Likely XIs
Previous encounter
Strategy Punt
- The Royal Challengers' pace attack has been key to their wins in the last few games, Considering how the Super Kings deteriorated against Mumbai's clinical seam bowling performance, and with Mohammed Siraj impressing with the new ball in the win against the Knight Riders, Royal Challengers could use the Morris-Siraj-Navdeep Saini trio against the Super Kings up front for maximum rewards.
- You can read a thousand books on how to dismiss de Villiers, but if it is his day, all you can do is just watch him whack it around the park. However, stats suggest getting him out inside the first 10 balls he faces is key, as once he settles, his strike rate goes up to 210, which has been the case since last season. He has also been dismissed eight times by legspinners since the 2018 season, so Dhoni could look to bring in one of his legspinners as soon as de Villiers arrives at the crease.
Stats that matter
- No batsman has scored more runs against the Super Kings than Kohli, who has racked up a tally of 837, which includes seven 50-plus scores.
- Barring Dhoni, who averages 42 and scores at 147 against Yuzvendra Chahal, the rest of the Super Kings batsmen have an average batting record against the legspinner and have struck at less than 100 against him.
- Kohli needs to clear the ropes once to reach 200 sixes in the IPL
- de Villiers needs 58 more to reach 9000 runs in T20s
Sruthi Ravindranath is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo