IPL 2018: RCB Vs SRH - Five players to watch out for

Having registered nine victories thus far this season, Sunrisers Hyderabad became the first team to qualify for the play-offs stage. They will be keen to extend their winning run when they take on Royal Challengers Bangalore, who will look to stay in contention, even though their chances are very slim.

SRH have been on a roll, steam-rolling almost every other side they have played against with their top class bowling. As the IPL 11 heads towards the business end, SRH will be hoping for more clinical performances in the remaining two games to consolidate their top spot in the points table.

On the other hand, RCB has a stiff task, going up against the red-hot SRH team. They kept their playoff hopes alive by beating DD and KXIP in their last two games.

With one team trying its best to find a place in the playoffs and the other using it as a practice match before playoffs, let's take a look at five players who can make an impact in this game.

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#5 Shikhar Dhawan

The Indian opener has been in some form this season for Sunrisers Hyderabad. With his consistent performances, Dhawan has not let SRH feel the absence of David Warner who has been sidelined from this season of IPL for his alleged involvement in the recent ball-tampering scandal.

The Delhi-born cricketer has thus far scored 368 runs in 11 innings at an average of 46.0 and a strike rate of 142.08.

With SRH's middle order being shaky, both Dhawan and Williamson has to score the bulk of the runs. So, the onus will be on Dhawan to score quick and bat through the innings.

#4 Umesh Yadav

Umesh Yadav

After being released by Kolkata Knight Riders, the Indian fast bowler was snapped up by Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 4.20 crore. The 30-year-old has been a revelation for RCB this season with his pace and swing this season.

The Vidharbha pacer has bent KXIP's back with a 3/23 and restricted them to a mere 88 runs in the must-win fixture on Saturday. Thus far Umesh has scalped 17 wickets at an average of 21.29 going at 8 runs per over.

Given the form he is in, Virat Kohli would want Umesh to deliver in this must-win clash against the giants SRH.

#3 Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson

With his calm and composed captaincy, Kane Williamson has been impressing one and all this season. Kane has been donning the dual role of being a key batsman and the captain of Warner-less SRH to the perfection.

On slow and turning surfaces in Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad, he has shown his wide array of shots to give SRH fighting totals in almost all the games.

Kane has thus far amassed 544 runs from 12 innings at an average of 60.44 and a strike rate of 135 to stand fourth in the batting charts of the season. Considering the form of the other SRH batsmen Kane would again be a key player along with Shikhar Dhawan to SRH's batting in the clash against RCB.

#2 AB de Villiers

AB de Villiers

The South African superstar has thus far scored 358 runs in 9 innings at an average of 51.14 and a staggering strike rate of 178.11.It certainly is a good news for RCB that two pillars of their batting have stepped up together for them at the right time. In their match against Delhi, with his breezy 37-ball-72, ABD made a 182 runs chase look like a 120 runs chase at Feroz Shah Kotla on Saturday.

With a do or die clash coming up, ABD must be raring to deliver against the top class SRH bowling unit to give his team a decent score to fight with.

#1 Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli

The skipper of RCB hasn’t been able to bat at par with the standards he has set for himself despite being the highest run-scorer for his team at the moment. But the chase master has come good in the must-win games against KXIP and RR with a 40-ball-70 and an unbeaten 28-ball-48 respectively.

Kohli has thus far scored 514 runs in 12 innings at an average of 57.11 and a strike rate of 142.38 to become the first player to score 500 plus runs in 5 different seasons.

With RCB desperately needing wins in their remaining two outings to stay alive in the competition, Kohli has to get his beast mode on tomorrow in their clash against SRH.