IPL 2016, RCB vs RPS: Bangalore face resurgent Pune

It will be a battle of survival for Virat Kohli's struggling RCB against a fledgling Pune Supergiants led by MS Dhoni.

RCB vs RPS, Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Rising Pune Supergiants, Rising Pune Supergiants vs Royal CHallengers Bangalore, RPS vs RCB, MS Dhoni, Dhoni, Virat kohli, Kohli, Chris Gayle, Gayle, IPL 2016, IPL, Cricket

It will be a battle of survival for Virat Kohli’s struggling RCB against a fledgling Pune Supergiants led by MS Dhoni in their second encounter. (Source: BCCI/IPL)

It will be a battle of survival for the two national captains as Virat Kohli’s struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore square off against a fledgling Pune Supergiants led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in an IPL encounter for the bottom-rung teams on Saturday. It has been a tough journey for the two superstars of Indian cricket as their teams have dished one disappointing performance after another.

RCB with perhaps the most intimidating batting line-ups has had to taste defeat because of a pedestrian bowling attack that has failed to defend 180 plus scores in most of the matches. Skipper Kohli, who is in form of his life, is leading the run-getters list with 433 runs to his credit with a century and four 50 plus scores at a whopping average of 72.16. AB de Villiers with 320 runs is also in the Top-10 list but the problem has been their bowling.

Their two best performers Shane Watson and Yuzvendra Chahal with 9 and 5 wickets respectively have an economy rate of 8.60 and 8.89 to show for their efforts. In fact, none of the RCB bowlers have an economy rate of less than eight runs per over.

It is expected that England seamer Chris Jordan, who put up some exceptionally good performances at the death during the last ICC World T20 will be coming into the playing XI giving Kohli, the respite he needs at the opening and during the death overs.

For Dhoni and his men, they will like to think that the win against Daredevils will boost their morale after four defeats at their home ground in Pune. Spate of injuries leading to return of Faf du Plessis, Kevin Pietersen, Steven Smith and Mitchell Marsh has hampered Dhoni’s plans but he will get some relief with the joining of Usman Khawaja, who made 30 in his IPL debut.

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