Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will face off at Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai) this Sunday (25th April) afternoon during the 19th match of the IPL 2021. While RCB have won all their four matches of this season, CSK have won thrice and lost once in this early moment of this season. For CSK, Moeen Ali has injected much-needed urgency to that top-order, taking CSK's middle-overs run rate to 9.56 this year. Last year, CSK were guilty of allowing games to drift away from them in the middle. The last league game at Wankhede also happens to be the first 3:30 PM start there. In the first eight games at the venue, teams batting second have won five times. Team-wise, RCB is on a roll winning four out of four and the inclusion of Glenn Maxwell has been a been a big boost to the Virat Kohli led side.
The RCB batting appears to be top heavy and reliant on the performances of Kohli, South African maestro AB de Villiers and Australian maverick Glenn Maxwell. While Chahar has been in the thick of things at the start, spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Moeen Ali striking form, RCB have their task cut out. Where Dhoni uses Ravindra Jadeja with the ball could have a bearing on how the game goes. The left-arm spinner has a fine record against Kohli - he has conceded 123 runs in 113 balls bowled to RCB skipper, dismissing him thrice. Jadeja has also got the better of Glenn Maxwell on four occasions, giving away just 35 runs in the 30 deliveries bowled to him. With 887 runs in 25 innings, Virat Kohli is the leading run-getter against CSK in IPL. Despite RCB enjoying an undefeated streak in the IPL so far, Kohli himself was yet to impress as he stepped off the plate early in the first few matches of the game. With RCB’s new signing Glenn Maxwell, and veteran AB de Villiers, the boys in red managed to breeze past their rivals without significant input from their captain, but Kohli quickly turned things around with his 72 off 47 against Rajasthan Royals.
