Royal Challengers Bengaluru will have a clear aim in their mind to make it to the playoffs when they take on Chennai Super Kings on Sunday at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. However, they might be forced to wait for another league match to seal a place in the final four as the rain is expected to play the spoilsport in Bengaluru on Saturday.
The weather forecast isn’t very pleasing as the city has been hit by persistent rain in the last couple of days, and the prediction suggests that there is more than a 50 per cent chance of it pouring down during the match time.
RCB are currently placed at the third spot on the points table with 7 wins in 10 matches, however, their record at home hasn’t been up to the mark this season. They have won just one out of the four matches played so far this season at Chinnaswamy.
Despite their home record, Rajat Patidar and Co. will start as firm favourites against bottom-placed CSK, who are already out of the playoffs race. In their previous fixture, RCB registered its first win at Chepauk for the first time since 2008 as they breezed past the Super Kings with a thumping 50-run victory.
According to Accuweather, there is about a 50 per cent chance of rain on Saturday from 4 PM to 10 PM, while things won’t improve much later in the night with over 30 per cent chance of precipitation.
The weather also played a spoilsport for both teams on the eve of the clash, as rain interrupted training sessions.
Chennai started their session around 3 PM on Friday but only managed to practice for about 45 minutes before the rain interrupted, while they later resumed training by 4.30 p.m. The hosts also trained for about 45 minutes with rain cutting short their session.
RCB start favourites vs CSK
Earlier, the rain also impacted RCB’s match against PBKS in Bengaluru, where it was cut short to 14 overs per side, and the home team suffered a defeat.
For RCB, Virat Kohli has constructed a mini hot streak, making four fifties in his last five innings and pushing for the Orange Cap with 443 runs.
On the other hand, CSK will hope that their batters such as Ayush Mhatre, Sam Curran, Dewald Brevis and Shivam Dube will fire to give Dhoni the cushion to do his things at the business end of the innings.
