Battle of the out of form contenders

The penultimate group phase match of this seasons Dream11 Indian Premier League comes with two teams desperate to get themselves a win to secure their place in the play-offs. The Delhi Capitals take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a must win match that could see any number of outcomes once the 240 balls have been delivered.

Bounce back from a battering

They knew they were going in to their match on Saturday afternoon with the Mumbai Indians needing to win, and on the back of three defeats in a row, but the Delhi Capitals management will be mortified with how poorly they played last time out. A crushing defeat by the already qualified Mumbai by nine wickets has left them needing to win their last match to just give themselves a sniff of qualification. It is a long fall for the Capitals who were top of the tree at the half way point and looked like a dead cert for a top four space.

After losing both openers in the powerplay, the Capitals were always playing catch up in Dubai. They scraped themselves up to 110-9 but they would have known that it would never be enough to challenge the leaders, as Mumbai knocked off the small total in the 15^th over with nine wickets intact.

Last time the sides met it was the Capitals who gave RCB a smashing by 59 runs with Marcus Stoinis hitting a quick fire 53 before Kagiso Rabada took four wickets in response.

Don’t blow it now

They have never won the IPL and they won’t want to throw away what is a fantastic chance to win their first. They were sat in second place going in to their huge match with the Sunrisers Hyderabad and set the Sunrisers just 121 to win on a two paced pitch in Sharjah. No batsman really got going with Josh Philippe top scoring with 32 in an innings with a whopping fifty dot balls.

In return, despite getting the early wicket of David Warner, RCB struggled to restrict the Sunrisers in the powerplay as they broke the back of the run chase in the first six overs. Yuzvendra Chahal was his usual self as he tried to squeeze in the middle overs, and picked up two wickets but it wasn’t enough as they got home with five wickets and 35 balls still in the tank.

All of this means that there are six teams jostling for three spots to join the Mumbai Indians in the next phase of the IPL, and who would like to predict what will happen when the final four matches have all been played.

Match Tip

Due to the indifferent form of the Delhi openers, I think that RCB could get off to a better start, especially if they continue with Josh Philippe at the top of the order.

I am backing the Royal Challengers Bangalore to have a higher opening partnership than the Delhi Capitals at 1.85 with LeoVegas.

Bet Royal Challengers Bangalore to have a higher opening partnership on LeoVegas