Match 34 of the 2017 Indian Premier League [IPL] will see Steve Smith and Virat Kohli up against each other once again as Rising Pune Supergiant host Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Pune will be keen to get back to winning ways, having lost their last encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders. After a poor start to their campaign, they look almost certain to be pushing for a playoff spot this season.
On the other hand, the Royal Challengers have had a season to forget so far. They simply need to win every match from here on in, to have any chance of qualifying for the final four.
Ahead of the match, we have the latest team news, start time and date, as well as how you can watch all the action from the UAE.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: April 29, 2017 (Saturday)
Time: 14:30 GST, 16:00 local time (IST), 10:30 GMT
Venue: Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune
WHERE TO WATCH, LIVE STREAMING INFO
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD, India – Sony Six, Sony Six HD (English), Sony Max, Sony Max HD 3 (Hindi), UK – Sky Sports
Online streaming: hotstar.com, Hotstar app (in India only)
LIVE: Sport360.com
TEAM NEWS, SQUADS, PREDICTED XIs
#Supergiants, #IPL milestones achieved in the last two matches:
1⃣5⃣0⃣ games for @msdhoni
1⃣5⃣0⃣0⃣ runs for @stevesmith49#RangWahiJungNayi pic.twitter.com/qnElE94AAB
RPS SQUAD: MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Faf du Plessis, Ashok Dinda, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Ankit Sharma, Ishwar Pandey, Adam Zampa, Jaskaran Singh, Baba Aparajith, Deepak Chahar, Usman Khawaja, Mayank Agarwal, Ben Stokes, Jaydev Unadkat, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Kumar, Dan Christian, Milind Tandon, Rahul Tripathi, Manoj Tiwary, Lockie Ferguson, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir
England all-rounder Ben Stokes is likely to sit out of this game having suffered a shoulder injury against Mumbai Indians earlier this week.
In Pune’s last game, it was Faf du Plessis who replaced Stokes but that ended up being a wasted selection as the South Africa Test and T20 captain did not get to bat. Hence, it won’t be surprising if a bowler – either Lockie Ferguson or Adam Zampa – is brought into the team in place of du Plessis.
PREDICTED RPS XI: Rahane, Tripathi, Smith (c), Dhoni (wk), Tiwary, Christian, Washington, Thakur, Ferguson, Unadkat, Tahir
All but over for #RCB. Can still qualify mathematically but the nature of defeats suggesting that a Royal turnaround unlikely. #RCBvGL #IPL
RCB SQUAD: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Sreenath Aravind, Kedar Jadhav, Stuart Binny, Samuel Badree, Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Iqbal Abdullah, Avesh Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi, Pawan Negi, Tymal Mills, Aniket Choudhary, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake, Vishnu Vinod, Harpreet Singh
The Royal Challengers have quite simply failed to get the balance of their playing XI right this season and the fact that their star batsmen have failed to replicate performances from previous years hasn’t helped.
Mandeep Singh’s form with the bat has been worrisome for the Bengaluru-based franchise and that could see a change in the batting side of the team. If Tymal Mills is fit, he is likely to return to the line-up.
PREDICTED RCB XI: Gayle, Kohli (c), de Villiers, Jadhav (wk), Harpreet, Baby, Negi, Badree, Aravind, Mills, Chahal
FORM
(Last five matches – with latest match first)
RPS: L W W W L
RCB: L N L W L
MATCH PREDICTION
The Royal Challengers seem to be very low on confidence and that sees us predicting a win for Pune.