Chennai Super Kings’ fragile bowling vis-a-vis Royal Challengers Bangalore’s struggling batting line-up put the sides on an even keel as the two heavyweights face-off in an important mid-table clash of the IPL 2022 in Pune on Wednesday (May 4). In cricket, when two strong and equally performing teams have a match-up, it promises a great contest but when two sides with specific weak-links are pitted against each other it makes the contest all the more exhilarating.


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Sample this. In 10 games that RCB has played so far, only six half-centuries have been recorded and out of them two belongs to skipper Faf du Plessis, which is a testimony to below-par batting show in the tourney.


In nine games that CSK have played so far, there hasn’t been a single bowler (pacers and spinners), who has bowled at an economy rate of less than 7.50 runs an over. The best economy rate is of Mahesh Theeksana (7.54) while Dwayne Bravo (14 wickets) and Mukesh Choudhary (11 wickets) have had poor economy rates of 8.73 and 9.82 runs per over average.


The match also becomes an enticing one as Virat Kohli has finally found some some form going his way and Mahendra Singh Dhoni is back in the saddle and would do everything under his control to plot the downfall of India’s best batter.


Dhoni’s return as CSK skipper replacing an out-of-sorts and more so bereft of ideas Ravindra Jadeja, proved beneficial as they outscored a formidable Sunrisers Hyderabad, keeping their campaign alive with six points from nine games.


While RCB are still on fifth place with 10 points from as many games, they seemed to have lost a bit of momentum with three back-to-back defeats primarily due to shoddy batting shows. Even in their last game versus Gujarat Titans, Kohli’s 58 off 53 balls was one of the reasons that RCB failed to score more than 170, which was below-par on a good batting track.


Match Details


Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings, Match No. 49


Venue: MCA Stadium, Pune


Date & Time: May 4th at 7:30 PM IST


Live Streaming: Star Sports Network, Star Gold and Disney+Hotstar


RCB vs CSK Dream 11 Prediction


Wicketkeeper: MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik


Batters: Virat Kohli, Devon Conway, Rajat Patidar, Ruturaj Gaikwad


All-rounders: Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed


Bowlers: Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mukesh Choudhary


Captain: Devon Conway


Vice-Captain: Dinesh Karthik


RCB vs CSK Probable Playing XI


Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Mahipal Lomror, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood


Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Mitchell Santner, Dwaine Pretorius, Simarjeet Singh, Mukesh Choudhary, Maheesh Theekshana