Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings - Match Preview

🏏 17 April 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will go head-to-head in match 24 of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday evening local time at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Both sides have won two and lost two so far in this year’s tournament but had different results in their last games. RCB beat Delhi Capitals by 23 runs on Saturday whilst CSK were defeated by three runs against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday.

Captained by South African Faf du Plessis, RCB began the campaign with an eight-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians, but then lost heavily to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 81 runs and narrowly by one wicket from the last ball of the game against Lucknow Super Giants. However, they got back to winning ways against bottom-of-the-table and winless Delhi Capitals in a fixture in which they were always leading.

At the time of writing, Virat Kohli is one of only three players, alongside Jos Buttler and David Warner, to have hit three half-centuries in the 2023 IPL. His lowest score in this campaign is 21 and his strike rate of 147.59 is his second-highest across his 16 IPL seasons. He has amassed 31.4% of RCB’s runs in this year’s tournament (214 / 681) with his opening partner Faf du Plessis contributing 28.9% (197 / 681).

The wickets were shared out across the RCB bowling attack against Delhi Capitals with Shahbaz Ahmed the only one of six bowlers used who went wicketless. 26-year-old right-arm pacer Vijaykumar Vyshak had a dream IPL debut returning figures of 3/20 from his four overs which included dismissing the in-form pair of David Warner and Axar Patel. Wayne Parnell has taken four wickets from his two games with Mohammed Siraj picking up five wickets from his last two and seven across the tournament so far.

CSK sandwiched their two victories against Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians with defeats against Gujarat Titans in Match 1 and Rajasthan Royals in Match 17. However, back-to-back victories is something that managed to elude them throughout the 2022 IPL and they have already this year won half the number of games they managed in that campaign (four).

Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed for eight against Rajasthan Royals but remains the leading run scorer for CSK in 2023 with 197 runs at an average of 65.67. After contributing 14 sixes from 14 matches in 2022, he is performing at a higher level this year and matched that figure of sixes after three innings. Alongside Gaikwad, New Zealand’s Devon Conway hit a half-century against Rajasthan Royals and Ajinkya Rahane has impressed with scores of 31 and 61 since being called up to the team against Mumbai Indians.

With the ball, off-spinners have the best historical economy rates in T20s at the M Chinnawamy Stadium which could indicate that Moeen Ali will be a crucial bowler for CSK. So far in the tournament, he has delivered six overs with combined figures of 5-47. Ravindra Jadeja is also in strong form with five wickets from his last two matches but it is Tushar Deshpande, who has taken two wickets in each of the last three games and seven wickets in total, who is CSK’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament.

This will be the 32nd head-to-head fixture with CSK leading RCB 20-10 and one match ending in no result. Although it was RCB who came out on top in the last clash, CSK lost only six of the last 24 completed matches between the sides. Clear skies are forecast on Monday evening in Bengaluru with humidity levels not expected to go above 30% and the temperature to drop to no lower than 25 degrees.

⚡ Players to watch: Australian RCB all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has faced only 53 balls so far in the tournament but has hit 100 runs including four fours and 11 sixes. With Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis in such good form at the top of the order this year, ‘Maxi’ has not had as much opportunity as he may have liked, but he is striking at a rate of 188.68 - currently the highest across his 11 seasons in the IPL.

Ruturaj Gaikwad began the 2023 IPL with scores of 92 against Gujarat Titans, 57 against Lucknow Super Giants and 40 not out against Mumbai Indians. He now averages 40.11 from 40 IPL innings and is alongside only David Warner, KL Rahul and Jos Buttler to strike more than 1000 IPL career runs at an average of over 40.

📋 Stat attack: RCB conceded the most sixes in each of the last five H2Hs (total: 50).

• Chennai’s average powerplay score when batting is 60/1 and 65/1 when bowling this year!
• RCB have posted the highest opening partnership and accumulated the most powerplay runs in all four games in 2023.
• MS Dhoni averages 92.60 and scores at 10.85rpo in IPL games at the Chinnaswamy (5x 50s).
• In six of the ten IPL innings in which they faced off as bowler and batter respectively, Ravindra Jadeja has dismissed Glenn Maxwell for career figures of 6/49.
• Ajinkya Rahane currently has a strike rate of 200 in the 2023 IPL. His previous best was 137.89 in the 2019 IPL.