The ultimate rivalry of the 2016 finalists:

Four years ago, in the 2016 IPL final, Royal Challengers Banglore ( RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) played against each other. In that season, SRH was the title winner and RCB concluded by being the runners-up.

This year, RCB is all set to take the revenge from SRH. In the 2020 IPL auction, RCB has managed to get some fantastic buys with Chris Morris and Aaron Finch and along with this duo, there are a number of wonderful T20 players to ensure that this season will be an ultimate season for RCB.

On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad is flying under the radar, which assures to perform well for the team. David Warner, that time captain of SRH has already won the Orange Cap two times in the last three seasons. Also, he concluded as the leading run-getter in three IPL seasons. But this time his teammate Kane Williamson has taken the captainship, who scored massive 735 runs in the previous season. It can’t be denied that the players of Sunrisers Hyderabad are terrific both on paper and also off the paper.

Team News

Royal Challengers Bangalore:

Most probably, Parthiv Patel and Aaron Finch will open the match followed by stupendous duo Virat Kohli and AB de Villers at numbers 3 & 4 respectively. Devdutt Padikkal is the young star of the team and Chris Morris will there for any uncertainty, playing at no.6 position. The spin unit will be handled by Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal while the fast bowling department is managed by Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, and Dale Steyn.

Probable XI: 1 Aaron Finch, 2 Parthiv Patel (Wicketkeeper), 3 Virat Kohli (Captain), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Devdutt Padikkal, 6 Chris Morris, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Dale Steyn, 9 Navdeep Saini, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Mohammed Siraj

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

This time, the Sunrisers Hyderabad will come to the crease with the all-time most victorious opening duo, David Warner and Jonny Bairstow. Last time, this pair burned up the charts with scoring 692 runs with a strike rate of 143.86 and at an average of 69.2. In the Bairstow’s 1st IPL season, in 10 innings he scored 445 runs and with David Warner, he managed to put up a 185 run partnership for the 1st wicket.

With Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Wriddhiman Saha, and Vijay Shankar, the middle order is looking more stabilized. Shahbaz Nadeem and Rashid Khan are those players, who have the ability to turn the game while Siddharth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma, and Bhuvneshar Kumar are three fantastic pacers.

Probable XI: 1 David Warner (Captain), 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 Wriddhiman Saha, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Siddharth Kaul, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Shahbaz Nadeem

Stats and Trivia

– Five more wickets to go and  Sandeep Sharma will complete  his100 IPL wickets. In IPL, he has dismissed RCB captain, Virat Kohli six times.

– Against RCB, Kane Williamson has made 262 runs at an average rate of 65.50 which is the highest runs among all the existing teams in the IPL.

– Big achievement is waiting for Virat Kohli. He needs only 100 more runs to finish his 9000 T20 runs mark. After this feat, he will become the 1st player of India to achieve the landmark while being the 7th player worldwide after Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle, Shoaib Malik, Brendon McCullum, Warner, and Finch.