Royal Challengers Bengaluru(RCB) who holds a unique record for not facing any defeats on May 18 will play a crucial game tonight against Chennai Super Kings at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Highlights:
- RCB became the fourth side to have sequences of five successive wins and defeats each in the same season. Deccan Chargers in 2010, PBKS in 2020 and SRH in 2022 are the other teams to have such mixed league runs.
- Shivam Dube averages 113.50 against RCB. His four scores against them read: 46 (32), 95* (46), 52 (27) and 34* (28).
- In a reversal of traditional strengths, RCB’s spinners have taken more wickets this season (20 at 20.3 SR) than CSK’s have (13 at 34.6 SR).
- Will Jacks and Reece Topley will be unavailable for RCB while Matheesha Pathirana, Deepak Chahar, Mustafizur Rahman and Moeen Ali will be unavailable for CSK.
Faf du Plessis and Co. will play their most crucial game of this season tonight as the result will decide their spot in the top 4 for the playoffs round. Both CSK and RCB will clash tonight for the final spot in the IPL 2024 playoffs.
KKR, RR and SRH have qualified for the playoffs while LSG, DC, MI, PBKS and GT have been Eliminated. CSK and RCB both teams have registered 7 victories each in their first 13 league games and will play their final league game of the season today.
Though they both share equal points, Chennai Super Kings have an edge over the RCB in terms of Net Run Rate. It’s worth mentioning that both RCB and CSK have positive NRR but CSK has a slight upper hand in terms of numbers.
Chennai Super Kings remained inconsistent in their last five games where Ruturaj Gaikwad and Co. registered 3 victories and 2 defeats. On the other hand, RCB holds a strong record of winning their last 5 games of this season.
What to Expect Today in RCB vs CSK Clash?
A start-stop game. There is an 80% forecast for rain that is expected to hit Bengaluru CBD around match-start time. The sub-surface aeration at the stadium should facilitate a quick restart. The six games here have been split in the middle between wins for target-setting and chasing teams.
RCB Never Lost a Match on May 18 in IPL History
Ahead of the match start, many cricket fans started to predict their winner and even some drew stats to prove their point of view in deciding the winner of the game.
One such interesting stat is that Royal Challengers Bengaluru have never faced a defeat while playing on May 18. Moreover, RCB has defeated CSK a couple of times in the past on this same day.
- Won vs CSK in 2013
- Won vs CSK in 2014
- Won vs KXIP in 2016
- Won vs SRH in 2023
If Chennai Super Kings win the game then CSK will advance to the playoffs while RCB needs to win the game with certain criteria to surpass CSK’s NRR to confirm their playoff spot.
CSK vs RCB Head-to-Head Stats
Speaking on the head-to-head stats, In 32 matches played, CSK won 21 matches while RCB won just 10 matches. The Super Kings have won each of their last three as well as five of their last six contests against RCB. Only MI has more wins against a single opponent (23 vs KKR) than CSK’s 21 wins against RCB.
But with the current data, Royal challengers Bengaluru is expected to have a slight upper hand over Chennai Super Kings in today’s game at Bengaluru.
Rain Threat in RCB vs CSK Clash
Apart from predicting the winners, fans remain in panic as the weather forecast predicted RAIN possibilities tonight in Bengaluru. Don’t worry, RCB still has a chance to qualify for the playoffs in case the game is interrupted by rain.
RCB have to win at least by a margin of 18 runs if they bat first i.e if they score 200, they’ll have to restrict CSK to 182 or less. This bat-first scenario doesn’t change even in a truncated five-over contest: if they make 75 in a five-over contest, they’ll need to restrict the opposition to 57 or less, failing which CSK will go through.
If RCB are batting second and CSK post 200, the hosts will have to get to 201 with 11 or more balls to spare. If they hit a six from 200, they can complete the chase with up to 8 balls to spare. The chasing equation gets complicated in a truncated game. A target of 75 in a five-over clash, for example, will have to be chased down in 3.1 overs for their NRR to go above CSK’s.
CHECK: M. Chinnaswamy Stadium Weather Today – Bengaluru
CSK Probable Playing 11
Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (wk), Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Mitchell Santner/Richard Gleeson, Simarjeet Singh, Maheesh Theekshana
Impact Sub: Sameer Rizvi
RCB Probable Playing 11
Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Swapnil Singh, Karn Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Siraj
Impact Sub: Vijaykumar Vyshak/Yash Dayal
