Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bengaluru have a provisional playoff berth in sight and Chennai Super Kings need a morale-lifting win. But beyond the team goals, the IPL match here on Saturday offers the opportunity to see icons Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni battling against each other, perhaps, one final time in the league.
Before delving into that possibility, a glance of the situation will reveal that RCB can swell their tally to 16 with a win, a position from where they potentially cannot falter in the race to the Qualifiers with three matches still remaining.
A victory will instil some belief into an already ousted CSK unit that it can gain some late momentum and finish somewhere mid-table, and avoid the ignominy of being the wooden-spoon holders.
And each of that objective is closely linked with the form of Kohli and Dhoni, the protagonists of one of the brightest bromance stories in Indian cricket.
But at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, they will be going at full tilt against each other. Kohli has constructed a mini hot streak, making four fifties in his last five innings and pushing for Orange Cap with 443 runs.
The champion batter will be eager to produce another little masterclass to help RCB get closer to the play-off berth.
He will be glad to see Devdutt Padikkal giving him solid support at No. 3, making two fifties in his last two innings.
But Kohli will certainly like to see more contribution from his opening partner Phil Salt, so that he does not have to do the heavy-lifting alone.
Similarly, RCB will also be keen to see skipper Rajat Patidar regaining his smooth-hitting form of the earlier part of the IPL, as his last substantial innings came seven matches ago.
However, he can look to cash in on the under-firing CSK bowling unit, except pacer Khaleel Ahmed and spinner Noor Ahmad.
But the Super Kings batters, who have suffered a collective dip in form this season, will have no such respite as they will be up against Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma.
They have worked well within their limitations, and CSK will hope that their batters such as Ayush Mhatre, Sam Curran, Dewald Brevis and Shivam Dube will fire to give Dhoni the cushion to do his things at the business end of the innings.
In the past, Dhoni’s quick 30s had transformed CSK’s middling totals into competitive ones, but the top-order malfunction has robbed the skipper’s cameos of their usual effect this year.
But for their legion of fans, the presence of Kohli and Dhoni, who had said his participation in IPL 2026 depends on his body’s ability to withstand the demands of the league, will be an endearing reminder to the days when they orchestrated many Indian wins together.
Now, they are standing at the opposite spectrum, but the aficionados will dream of them turning back the wheels of time once more to produce a signature classic.
Teams (from):
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (c) Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma (w), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Liam Livingstone, Swapnil Singh, Manoj Bhandage, Rasikh Dar Salam, Nuwan Thushara, Jacob Bethell, Mohit Rathee, Swastik Chikara, Abhinandan Singh.
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (c, wk), Shaik Rasheed, Ayush Mhatre, Deepak Hooda, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana, Anshul Kamboj, R Ashwin, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Jamie Overton, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tripathi, Shreyas Gopal, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, C Andre Siddarth, Vansh Bedi.
Match starts at 7.30 PM.
