IPL Fantasy League 2016 Tips: Rising Pune Supergiants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, Match 16

I don’t think it’s possible to predict anything about this match without knowing the kind of deck it is going to be played on. The last match played here, a T20 international between India and Sri Lanka, saw possibly the greenest deck you could ever see in a limited overs cricket match in India.

And Pune is generally known for producing the weirdest of decks possible as well.

Rising Pune Supergiants

Steven Smith has sealed his spot with an attacking cameo in the match against the Kings XI Punjab, but it’s as bad a news as it can get for a team that's already struggling: Smith at 4 is not just playing him in the wrong position, but delaying MS Dhoni as well.

Besides these two issues, this move is also keeping Mitchell Marsh and Albie Morkel out of the side – two all-rounders who could provide some balance to their suspect bowling unit. To compound their issues, Dhoni, for reasons best known to him, seems to rate Thisara Perera higher than Marsh and Morkel.

If Pune still have any ideas of competing, they need to play this XI – Rahane, Du Plessis, Pietersen, Dhoni, M Marsh, A Morkel, I Pathan/S Tiwary, R Bhatia, R Ashwin, M Ashwin, Ishant. It’s bowling-heavy, yes, but that’s the best they have with the hole they dug for themselves in the auction.

For now, safe to say, it's a shootout between Pune and Kings XI for the wooden spoon – two poorly managed and captained teams.

Coming to fantasy picks, as predicted in the preview of the Pune Supergiants, Faf du Plessis has shown why he is as good as any other fantasy option when opening the innings – solid, presence of 3rd and 4th gears, and no obvious weaknesses. While Ajinkya Rahane and Kevin Pietersen have got off to starts in all their matches, they, however, haven’t been able to make that count.

Since Pune will be facing a weaker bowling attack today, I would expect Rahane and Du Plessis to play through the first half of the innings, thereby reducing Pietersen’s fantasy potential.

Murugan Ashwin is the only bowling option worth considering here. Unless it’s a turner, I wouldn’t expect much from him today since he will be bowling a majority of his overs to Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

I still don’t understand why the Royal Challengers made six changes in their last match, the worst of them being dropping their best bowler, Yuzvendra Chahal. With the kind of hammering their bowling unit received, they could bring the leg-spinner back into the team for this encounter.

For those of you who have followed Travis Head, his performance against Mumbai Indians shouldn’t have come across as a surprise. However, he is naturally a top order player and I would like to see him opening the innings in place of KL Rahul, whose T20 skills are anyway very limited. There is not much use in picking Head now, especially for this match, which the RCB top 4 should see it off.

Against a weak bowling attack like the Supergiants, I will always go with the player who bats first as my batting captain – Kohli, in this case. Watson could be all or nothing today – the ideal scenario is that he will be bowling to a line-up that can handle him with ease, and with the bat, he may not get as many deliveries to make an impact.

On the other hand, if by chance a couple of early wickets fall, the Australian all-rounder could own the entire day. With a second match coming up soon and with him being a good chance for cheap wickets at the death, it doesn’t make sense to leave him out anyway.

Note: I am not using the usual format here for aforementioned reasons with respect to the nature of the deck.

Flat wicket scenario:

Batting captain – Kohli

Bowling captain – Watson

Turner scenario:

Batting captain – Kohli

Bowling captain – Y Chahal/M Ashwin/R Ashwin

Green deck scenario:

Batting captain – De Villiers

Bowling captain – Watson