RCB to make it two from two

Match 6 of the Vivo Indian Premier League sees two teams that had mixed fortunes chasing large totals in their first games as the Sunrisers Hyderabad meet the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai. RCB will still be on a high following their win over reigning champions the Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener, whilst the Sunrisers will be looking to make some small changes to improve on their defeat last time out.

An uphill battle

It was always going to be a tough chase for the Sunrisers Hyderabad when they ended up needing 188 against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday night. Besides mystery spinner Rashid Khan, none of the Orange Army bowlers will look back on the scorecard too fondly. The 22-year-old Afghan picked up figures of 2-24 from his allocation, which looks even better when you realise the rest of the seamers went for nearly 10 runs per over.

Interestingly, the Sunrisers couldn’t find a space in their XI for Kiwi captain Kane Williamson, who had to watch from the side-lines in Chennai. They opted to pair skipper David Warner with the experienced Wriddhiman Saha. With Jonny Bairstow batting at four, and Jason Roy becoming available in a few days’ time, it is looking like it could be difficult for Williamson to break in to the final XI, despite his class.

In pursuit of 188, the Sunrisers lost Warner in the second over for 3, and Saha the following over for 7 to leave them 10-2. Bairstow (55) and Manish Pandey (61*) started the rebuild and got them to 102, needing 86 from the final seven overs. But they never really looked like getting over the line, and in the end, fell short by 10 runs.

A rare seaming star for RCB

It went to the wire but the Royal Challengers Bangalore completed a very impressive run chase against the Mumbai Indians in their opening game. The match was set up in the first innings following a very special spell from Harshal Patel, who took 5-27, including the wickets of Kieron Pollard and both of the Pandya brothers, to prevent the champions from setting a huge total.

In response, RCB elevated Washington Sundar to the top of the order, in the absence of Devdutt Padikkal, but he spluttered to just 10 from 16 balls. However, it was the explosive and experienced pair of Glenn Maxwell (39) and AB de Villiers (48) who broke the back of the chase and got them towards the victory target of 160.

Match Tip

Following their convincing victory last time out, I think the Royal Challengers Bangalore could back up their performance with one of equal quality.

That’s why I am backing the Royal Challengers Bangalore to beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad at 1.75 with Parimatch.

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