Rising Pune Supergiants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2016, Match 16 at Pune: Virat Kohli vs Ishant Sharma and other key battles

Both the teams stand seventh and eighth respectively in the Points table having losing two of three league matches and desperately looking for a win. Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) batting has clicked but their bowling has created woes in every match.They are missing the services of Mitchell Starc as their bowling spearhead. On the other hand Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) just registered a win similar to that for RCB but unable to capitalise on that. Playing at home conditions might work in favor of them. Both the teams have a good top order that has never disappointed them. It’s the middle order and the bowling they are concerned about. Improper utilisation of resources was also witnessed in last match when Irfan Pathan was just given an over although, he proved to be economical. Going against the duo of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli will be a task for them. Let’s take a look at the key battles between RCB and RPS: FULL SCORECARD: Rising Pune Supergiants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2016, Match 16 at Pune

Virat Kohli vs Ishant Sharma: Virat Kohli is in the form of his life performing at his best in almost every match. Two consecutive 75 plus scores is still a record in this circuit and a similar innings of that fashion is on the card going into the fixture. Ishant Sharma seems to have found his line and length to an extent this IPL, performing well in the first match. It will be his task for these players to go past each other with one being a hard hitter while the other aiming for picking the target.

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Shane Watson vs Mitchell Marsh: The battle between the Aussies is one of the most interesting we will see tonight. Shane Watson has contributed well with his cameos, so does Mitchell Marsh. Keeping Mitchell away is previous edition, indeed costed RPS with their second consecutive loss. Both of them can bowl as well and a contest between them is right on the cards.

AB de Villiers vs Murugan Ashwin: It is quite unfair to compare the youngster M Ashwin to the 360 degree man but he will definitely be going against the big hitter in middle overs. Murugan Ashwin has looked promising taking wickets in crunch situation to give his team a fighting chance but going against AB De Villiers in his current form, might be the toughest test he has to  pass.

Faf Du Plessis vs Iqbal Abdullah: Faf Du Plessis has been consistent in the top order leading Pune from the front and scoring half centuries. On the other hand Iqbal Abdullah was able to provide breakthroughs in the first match of IPL 9 against Mumbai Indians (MI) despite proving expensive which is a chance Kohli might take to stop him if he gets past powerplay overs.

MS Dhoni vs Parvez Rasool: The skipper MS Dhoni will be donning a finisher’s role. If he comes out to bat in middle overs he will be facing the Kashmir sensation’s spin bowler, Pervez Rasool. However, in the last match he proved to be expensive but he was right on the money with his first two spells picking up wickets. Dhoni can take on spinners but he will be going against the spinner for the first time giving him an element of surprise.

(Arun Rawal, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a daydreamer, movie buff, and cricket fanatic. He could not play cricket, so did the next best thing, writing for it. He loves to play the flick shot over square leg, and believes Sachin Tendulkar is God. His twitter handle is @ArunRawal93)