Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will square off with David Warner's Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator of the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Friday.


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It has been a roller coaster season for the Bangalore franchise as they displayed a solid peformance in the first-half of the season to seal seven wins in 10 games before they slumped to a four defeats in a row. Though RCB slumped to a six-wicket loss at the hands of the Delhi Capitals in their last league stage clash, they progressed to the playoffs due to better net run-rate than Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).


Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, had to seal victories in all of their last three matches of the league stage-- against Mumbai Indians, RCB and DC--to make it to the playoffs.They finished at the third place in the IPL standings with a total of seven wins from 14 matches.


The winner of this match will head into the Qualifier 2, where they will meet Delhi Capitals (the loser of Qualifier 1) for a place in the summit showdown of the lucrative T20 tournament.


Meanwhile, the losing side of the Eliminator will be out of this tournament.


Head-to-Head


The two sides have met each other in a total of 16 matches so far in the cash-rich league. While Sunrisers Hyderabad have emerged victorious in nine games, Bangalore have clinched wins in seven matches between the two teams.


Meanwhile, RCB and SRH have a win each in hand from the two league stage fixtures of the season. While the Bangalore franchise registered a 10-run win over Hyderabad in the first match between the two sides of the IPL 2020 at the Dubai International Stadium on September 21, Sunrisers rebounded strongly to seal a five-wicket win over RCB in the second league stage match between the two teams at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on October 31.


As far as the two sides' record at this venue is concerned, SRH have won just one out of four matches they have played in Dubai. RCB, on the other hand, have sealed two wins in five games they have played at this venue.


Important Milestones 


- RCB skipper Virat Kohli and his teammate Devdutt Padikkal require 40 and 28 runs,respectively to reach  500 runs this season.


- AB de Villiers is just 36 runs short of completing 500 IPL runs against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.


- SRH captain David Warner is just five maximums short of reaching 200 sixes in the IPL.


- Wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha needs 21 runs to complete 2000 IPL runs


RCB vs SRH, Dream11 Team Prediction:


Wicketkeeper: Wriddhiman Saha


Batsmen: Virat Kohli (captain), David Warner, Manish Pandey, Devdutt Padikkal, AB de Villiers


All-rounders: Jason Holder


Bowlers: Navdeep Saini, Rashid Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma


Probable XIs:


RCB Probable XI: Joshua Philippe, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris/Isuru Udana, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini/Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal


SRH Probable XI: David Warner (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg/Abhishek Sharma, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma, T. Natarajan


SQUADS: 


Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), Aaron Finch, Devdutt Padikkal, Chris Morris, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Pavan Deshpande, Pawan Negi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, AB de Villiers, Josh Philippe, Parthiv Patel, Dale Steyn, Adam Zampa, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal.


Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Priyam Garg, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Virat Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Basil Thampi, Abhishek Sharma, Billy Stanlake, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, K Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Mitchell Marsh, Bavanaka Sandeep, Fabian Allen, Abdul Samad, Sanjay Yadav, Rashid Khan.