Virat to lead from the front in crucial clash

Match 52 of this season’s Dream11 Indian Premier League and it is one of the most important matches in this year’s competition to date with the Royal Challengers Bangalore taking on the Sunrisers Hyderabad. RCB will be looking to cement their place in the top four, with the Sunrisers knowing that only a win will do if they want to keep their hopes alive of a play-off place.

Lead from the front

Despite only picking up two wins from their last five matches, the Royal Challengers Bangalore find themselves in a strong position going in to their final two matches. It is likely that one win will be enough, and Virat Kolhi’s men definitely won’t want to turn their final match against the Delhi Capitals in to a must win if they don’t need too. But they will need to improve on their performance last time out against the Mumbai Indians if they are going to take the two points in this one.

RCB made the tough call to leave out Australian star Aaron Finch and brought in fellow Aussie Josh Philippe at the top of the order and he didn’t disappoint, scoring 32 and putting on 71 with Devdutt Padikkal who went on to score 74. But no one else really got going, and RCB only set Mumbai 165 to win, which was never going to be enough against the reigning champions.

When the teams met last, back on match day three, it was RCB who took the win by just ten runs. Yuzvendra Chahal was the star with the ball, taking three wickets to bowl out the Sunrisers for 153.

Now or never

It is two wins from two needed for the Sunrisers Hyderabad to give themselves a chance of making the top four, but if they put in two performances as comprehensive as their demolition of the Delhi Capitals last time out, they will give themselves a shot. It was Jonny Bairstow who was left out of this one and they didn’t seem to miss him as they racked up a monumental 219-2 from their 20 overs. Wriddhiman Saha (87) and David Warner (66) scored the bulk of the runs for the Sunrisers before it was over the bowlers to finish the job off.

And finish the job off they did, they got century maker Shikhar Dhawan for a golden duck and they didn’t look back from there. Mystery spinner Rashid Khan was the pick of the bunch with mind boggling figures of 3-7 from his four overs, to bowl the Capitals out for 131 in 19 overs. Giving them a 88 run win and keeping alive any top four hopes.

Match Tip

This one really is about who steps up and leads their side home on the day, it is a day made for Mr Indian Cricket Virat Kohli who hasn’t been at his fantastic best for large chunks of this years IPL.

I am backing the Royal Challengers Bangalore to hit more sixes than the Sunrisers Hyderabad 1.91 with 888sport.

Bet Royal Challengers Bangalore to hit more sixes on 888sport