Khaleej Times

Struggling Bangalore need a win to keep their playoff hopes alive

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pune — Royal Challenger­s Bangalore will be striving to keep their IPL playoff hopes alive when they meet an equally inconsiste­nt Rising Pune Supergiant in an Indian Premier League encounter, on Saturday.

Current India captain Virat Kohli’s team has lost six out of their nine games and are second-last on the table with five points in their kitty.

For RCB, a defeat will mean that the tournament will be as good as over. They still have slim hopes if they can win all their remaining five games and hope for some favourable results from the other games.

Rising Pune Supergiant are slightly better off with eight points from eight games with four wins in their kitty. But even RPS has been inconsiste­nt at one level. They have been good on certain days and very ordinary on other days.

Skipper Steve Smith will like to address that issue when they face RCB, who are already down in the dumps after a string of defeats.

However T20 is a format where things change so quickly, RCB with their world-class batting line-up cannot be ruled out completely.

Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers can destroy any bowling attack on a given day and RPS save Ben Stokes (6 wickets) and Imran Tahir (10 wickets), don’t have much to write home about.

The Indian pacers like Jaydev Unadkat and Shardul Thakur have down well in patches.

But the Pune outfit will be facing RCB when their confidence has hit its nadir. The team is not doing well and perhaps it is the best time for RPS bowlers to put Kohli and Company into some sort of trouble.

In the batting department, the find of the season for Pune has been local boy Rahul Tripathi, who has scored 216 runs in six games but more importantl­y at an impressive strike-rate of 154.28 which includes 24 boundaries and eight sixes.

Only Smith with 275 runs (26 boundaries and seven sixes) has scored more than him. Former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has mustered only 152 runs at a strikerate of 120 plus with his only matchwinni­ng knock coming against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

 ?? IPL/SPORTZPICS ?? Virat Kohli will have to lead RCB by example. —
IPL/SPORTZPICS Virat Kohli will have to lead RCB by example. —

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