Bangalore hopes ‘Super’ Man Saini bowls over Rajasthan

ABU DHABI: The dew factor will go out of the window but the searing heat will be an issue when Rajasthan Royals (RR) takes on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the first afternoon game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 here on Saturday.

Having played its opening two matches in Sharjah, the smallest of the three venues, Royals got its strategy wrong in the game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Dubai. The ground here too is on the bigger side and Rajasthan’s experience of playing in Dubai will help it take more informed decisions.

RCB will also make its first appearance at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. With the batsmen unable to hit through the line as consistently as they could do in Sharjah, RR failed to chase 175 versus KKR. Royals, which has a settled overseas combination, benched young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal after Jos Buttler’s arrival, but calls have been growing for his inclusion.

With the top-three of Buttler, captain Steve Smith and Sanju Samson in good nick, the stylish southpaw can only play in the middle-order. Rajasthan as well as its opponent Bangalore have won two of their three matches in the league stage.

RCB has made a promising start, but needs to improve its fielding and death bowling. Navdeep Saini bowled a tidy ‘Super Over’ against Mumbai Indians (MI) to get his team over the line after Bangalore leaked 79 runs in the last four overs for the game to be tied.

RCB made three changes in the previous clash and is likely to give those players - Isuru Udana, Adam Zampa and Gurkeerat

Singh Mann - another go. The move to open the bowling with Washington Sundar paid off as the off-spinner returned with figures of one for 12 in four overs.

AB de Villiers has shown ominous touch and it must be heartening for the management to see Shivam Dube’s big hits. Skipper Virat Kohli is yet to set the tournament on fire and Saturday could be his day.

Outstanding ‘Super Over’ from Saini, bowling against Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard. The longer boundary helped him gain confidence with his yorker. He has the pace and used the wide yorker well Virat Kohli on Navdeep Saini after RCB-MI match