It is the 16th match of the VIVO IPL 2016 and finally, after playing away for three consecutive matches, the Rising Pune Supergiants are home at the MCA stadium. The visitors are a team that looks virtually invincible on paper but their performances so far have been way below par. On a normally green pitch known to favour spinners, Pune would surely fancy their chances. After comprehensively beating defending champions Mumbai Indians by nine wickets in the tournament opener, Pune crashed to a loss against fellow newbies Gujarat Lions and then became the first victims of a stuttering Kings XI Punjab side. For sure, Pune has a great balanced side with a combination of more-than-just-decent Indian players and an explosive foreign contingency.
Captain MS Dhoni, leading upfront, normally gets his team strategies sorted in the case of initial hiccups, but he is also known to have quite a dislike for changing team line-ups drastically, so it will be curious to see how he prepares his ‘giants’ for this vital clash. While star opener Ajinkya Rahane has kind of phased out after starting off with an unbeaten 66 against Mumbai, his fellow opener, South African captain Faf du Plessis, has been in superb form with scores of 34, 69 and 67.
Both of them are expected to perform vital roles as far as the outcome is concerned. Big money signing Kevin Pietersen has had starts but is yet to capitalize. Steve Smith has also got to prove his status of being a dangerous and destructive batsman.
This leaves Dhoni to juggle between the option of playing either Thisara Perrera or Mitchell Marsh. It is really an option between either using a better batsman or a better bowler. On a turning wicket, Dhoni would surely be smiling secretly as he can use an offspinner, a leggie, and a left-arm orthodox spinner.
While Ravichandran Ashwin has picked up just one wicket so far, his namesake Murugan has already got 6 scalps to his name. The left arm spinner, Ankit Sharma, has shown potential, getting rid of an in-form Manan Vohra last match and he will look for a better performance. Their pace attack will be led by Ishant Sharma and Dhoni would probably give Irfan Pathan the nod over the rather more expensive RP Singh.
For Bangalore, it has always been the case of a team never living up to it' full potential. Consider the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson in one team. Those are just four players.
While their captain and top scorer Virat Kohli has been in tremendous form with scores of75, 79 and 33, De Villiers, widely considered the best in present day cricket, has also shown great form with 166 runs in the tournament already. But while they started off with a commanding 45-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad, they faltered against the Delhi Daredevils and then the Mumbai Indians, despite scoring 191 and 170 respectively while batting first. In fact, they are the only team to have managed 170-plus scores in all their matches.
So their batting capabilities are never in doubt. Although Watson has not yet exactly fired, there is much scope for him and also, there is the middle order support of Sarfaraz Khan who has a couple of handy cameos to his name. Stuart Binny, however, has yet to stamp his authority. For this particular match, again there will be no Gayle as he has flown back to the Carribean temporarily after his partner gave birth to a child. So the in all likeliness Australian Travis Head will be included in the starting line-up ahead of South African David Wiese, having shown good form in his 24-ball 37 in the last match against Punjab.
The fourth slot for foreign players will be taken up by Kane Richardson, having been far more economical than Kiwi Adam Milne. On this pitch, Iqbal Abdullah will surely be used while Varun Aaron will spearhead the pace attack. Parvez Rasool would also be a decent spin option on this pitch as would Yuzvendra Chahal. So they may have to sacrifice a batsman in the form of Lokesh Rahul. Harshal Patel ,however, has been wicketless and expensive throughout, so it would be no surprise if Sreenath Aravind is in the starting line-up.
Rising Pune Supergiants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore 2016 LIVE Streaming Details:
TV Channel: Sony ESPN, Sony ESPN HD, Sony Six, Sony Six HD, Sony Max
Online Stream: www.starsports.com, Hotstar App
Match Date: 14 April 2016, Thursday
Match Timing: 20:00 IST, 14:30 GMT
Match Venue: Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot
Broadcast Details for watching the match :
| India | Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN |
| Africa | SuperSport |
| Pakistan | Geo Super |
| Bangladesh | Maasranga |
| Caribbean | Sportsmax |
| Bhutan | Set Max, Sony Six |
| Canada | Sportsnet |
| New Zealand | Sky Sport |
| Malaysia | Astro |
| Sri Lanka | Carlton Sports Network |
| Hong Kong | PCCW |
| The Middle East and North Africa | OSN |
| United States | ESPN |
| Singapore | StarHub, Singtel |
| Australia | CricketGateway.com |
| The United Kingdom | Sky Sports |
| Nepal | Sony Six, Sony Max |
| Brunei | Astro |
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