Under-pressure Kohli, RCB face in-form Chennai
If there is one team which knows to get into a mess after being in a good position, then it has to be the Royal Challengers Bangalore. From needing just 3 games to win from 7 matches, Royal Challengers Bangalore were thrashed severely by Kolkata Knight Riders. And now, when they go into a game on Friday against the mighty, dominating and in-form Chennai Super Kings; the pressure is surely going to be on them.
All is not lost and road is still fairly simple, but the cricketing world is still to understand onto why, the world’s most popular and leading cricketing master piece Virat Kohli is not able to shine with the captaincy so far.
Previously, it used to be the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who couldn’t manage the role of a captain and had to quit, to focus on his batting abilities.
Just shortly, Virat Kohli has also hung his boots in the T20 version (after the T20 world cup, for the international cricket and after this IPL for domestic circuit).
Most people say that, his aggressive attitude costs the team a big deal, while others say that, he has gone into a desperate state of mind to win, which is not allowing him to take good quality decisions.
Irrespective of the reason, both Indian and Royal Challengers Bangalore fans would definitely be looking forward to the results of this decision.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore have clashed in 27 IPL games so far in which the former has been a more dominating team.
Chennai Super Kings have won 17 of those while Royal Challengers Bangalore have been successful in winning 9 games with 1 match ending in a noresult.
Chennai Super Kings got the better of Royal Challengers Bangalore when these two sides crossed swords in the first half of IPL 2021. The clash took place at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and Chennai Super Kings opted to bat first after winning the toss.
The decision proved to be spot on as Chennai’s top order delivered. Faf du Plessis scored a fifty, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Suresh Raina chipped in with crucial contributions. However, the cherry on the cake was added by Ravindra Jadeja, the dasher wreaked havoc in the death overs and scored 62 off mere 28 deliveries.
Royal Challengers Bangalore succumbed to the one-man show and were restricted to a mere 122/9, losing the contest by 69 runs.
WHAT TO EXPECT?
While Chennai Super Kings would like to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore again in the upcoming contest, Kohli’s men will fight to settle the scores at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. All the wickets so far have had a good grass cover on it, which gives an equal advantage to the bowlers initially for a few overs, before the batsman starts to dominate the game again.
The game is mainly between the Chennai bowling and the Bangalore batting. Team chasing will have an upper hand, if they can pick up a few crucial wickets early and put the pressure on the other.
The small Sharjah ground makes any total chasable, there are wickets in hand. Although, if Kohli’s boys go into bat first, then after the tough defeat against the Kolkata, doubt that they would be able to play freely and express themselves.
At the same time, Both Mahendra Singh Dhoni fans and Kohli fans have been hoping to see a big and dominating innings from them for a long time. The combination of Kohli and Dhoni will be combining for the mission of bringing the T20 World Cup home for India.
This match will just be an opportunity for all the Indian cricket fans to see the highlights of the aggression of Kohli and the calmness of MS Dhoni.