Rising Pune Supergiants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2016, Match 16 at Pune, Preview: Both teams aim to break losing streak

Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Match 16 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 at Pune on Friday. Both RPS and RCB are coming off the back of two consecutive defeats and will be keen to register a win in this match. As a result, both teams have just two points from three matches. They will have to get a move on in the early stages of the tournament, if they are to make it to the final four. RPS and RCB have a good and competitive batting line-up but it is their bowlers, who have often let them down. RCB out up daunting totals against Delhi Daredevil’s (DD) and Mumbai Indians (MI), but some ordinary bowling let them down on both occasions. As many as six changes were made by RCB in their previous match against MI. FULL SCORECARD: Rising Pune Supergiants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2016, Match 16 at Pune

On the other hand, Faf du Plessis has been in excellent form with the bat for RPS. Along with Ajinkya Rahane, the duo form an excellent opening pair. With the likes of Kevin Pietersen, MS Dhoni, Steven Smith, Mitchell Marsh and Dwayne Bravo to follow, RPS’ line-up looks sorted. It’s their bowlers, who need to be a bit more disciplined.

Add Cricket Country as a Preferred Source

It is the same for RCB. Their bowlers need to step up a bit. Chris Gayle will miss this match as well, but will hopefully be available for the next game. Travis Head top-scored in the previous match and in all likeliness will retain his place. He can also takeover the wicketkeeping gloves, if needed.

Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson and Sarfaraz Khan are the men in form for RCB and will be entrusted to score a chunk of the runs once again. They still could make a couple of changes for this match. Mandeep Singh could perhaps replace Stuart Binny or KL Rahul. Kane Richardson did not have a particularly good game against MI, but he should be given another chance to redeem himself. Adam Milne too could prove to be a valuable replacement.

RPS too have a good bench strength with Adam Zampa, Scott Boland and Ishwar Pandey. Irfan Pathan bowled just one over in the previous match. Dhoni will have to let him bowl more if he has to have an impact.

Both RPS and RCB will want to put an end to their losing streak. Out of the 14 matched so far, 13 have been won by the team chasing. Needless to say, toss will play a crucial part in this match as well.

Squads:

Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS): MS Dhoni (c & wk), Steven Smith, Faf du Plessis, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mitchell Marsh, Ashwin Murugan, Ishant Sharma, Kevin Pietersen, Irfan Pathan, Thisara Perera, Rajat Bhatia, Ashoke Dinda, Scott Boland, Peter Handscomb, RP Singh, Adam Zampa, Ishwar Pandey, Deepak Chahar, Jaskaran Singh, Baba Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Ankit Sharma.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB): Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadav (wk), Mitchell Starc, Adam Milne, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Stuart Binny, Kane Richardson, Samuel Badree, Travis Head, Praveen Dubey, Vikramjeet Malik, Akshay Karnewar, Iqbal Abdullah, Sachin Baby, Vikas Tokas.

Time: 20.00 IST | 14.30 GMT

(Pramod Ananth is a reporter at CricketCountry. He has represented Karnataka table tennis under-15, and is a hardcore supporter of Liverpool FC. His Twitter handle is @pramz)