IPL 2018, RR Vs RCB: 5 players to watch out for

The IPL season 11 is just four matches away from entering the playoffs. As the race for the playoffs berth heats up, Royal Challengers Bangalore face-off against Rajasthan Royals in a must-win game at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur on Saturday.

Royal Challengers Bangalore's five-run loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad had them almost on the brink of being ousted from the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League. At that point, with four do-or-die games left to play, Royal Challengers came out on top rather convincingly with three massive wins on the trot by margins of five wickets, ten wickets, and 14 runs, to boost their chances of qualifying.

However, the job is only half done as they will now have to win their final match against Rajasthan Royals and hope other results go their way.

On the other hand, the story of Ajinkya Rahane led Rajasthan Royals isn't any different as they also have to win this game to stand a chance of making it to the playoffs.

With both teams finding themselves in a must-win game, let us take a look at the five players who could make an impact in this high-octane clash.

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#5 Heinrich Klassen

Heinrich Klassen

As England recalled Jos Buttler for their first Test against Pakistan on 24th May at Lord's, Rajasthan Royals will be without the services of in-form Jos Buttler for their last league game of the season against Royal Challengers Bangalore and it is likely that he could be replaced by Heinrich Klassen of South Africa. The wicketkeeper-batsman was brought into the team as a replacement for Steven Smith.

Klassen has already proved his T20 credentials in his debut series against India. He scored 92 runs in 3 innings at an average of 30.67 and a staggering strike rate of 190.67 in that series.

He was the only South African batsman who faced the Indian spin twins, Kuldeep Yadav and Yujvendra Chahal, with ease, in that series.

Given the wide array of shots in his arsenal and his ability to tackle spinners, Klassen can certainly replace Jos Buttler in this game.

#4 Tim Southee

Tim Southee

Despite going for a few runs up front in their last game against SRH, the Kiwi bowler came back brilliantly to bowl a game-changing 17th over where he gave away just six runs to turn the game in RCB's favor.

Thus far, the 29-year-old has picked 5 wickets in 7 games going at 8.96 runs per over.

Given his ability to take early wickets and contain batsmen at the death with his disciplined bowling death, Southee will again be a key player for RCB in their clash against Rajasthan Royals.

#3 Sanju Samson

Sanju Samson

The talented young batsman from Kerala has not been able to continue his rich vein of form in recent games as he continuously failed to convert the 20s into big scores.

The elegant right-hander has thus far amassed 391 runs in 13 matches at an average of 32.58 and a strike rate of over 140.

As both Buttler and Stokes are unavailable for this match, the onus will be on Samson to score big and bat through the innings.

#2 AB de Villers

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AB de Villiers has wowed IPL fans this season with his breathtaking efforts with the bat as well as with his fielding.

It was him who rescued his team from a grim situation of 38/2 to a score above 200 in the do-or-die match against SRH on Thursday. The Proteas batsman smashed the SRH bowlers all around the park with a 39-ball 69 to help his team post a massive total of 218/6 on the board.

With another do or die clash coming up against RR, ABD must be raring to deliver again to keep his team's playoff hopes alive.

#1 Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli

There were a lot of expectations on the Bangalore skipper in their do-or-die clash against SRH on Thursday, but he couldn't quite live up to the expectations as he was cleaned up by Rashid Khan for a mediocre 10-ball-12.

Though Kohli has scored 526 runs in 13 innings thus far at an average of 52.60, he couldn't quite make the impact at par with the standards he has set for himself.

With RCB desperately needing a win to stay alive in the competition, Kohli has to come good in their clash against Rajasthan Royals.