The Cricketer takes a look at the next fixture in the 2022 Indian Premier League season
Royal Challengers Bangalore will go head-to-head with Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League.
The match will be played on Saturday with the first ball going down at 7.30pm local time (3pm GMT).
The teams will face off at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Both sides are enjoying a good run of form. Royal Challengers sit second in the table, albeit with a game in hand, having won five of their seven games including their last two. Faf du Plessis came good for the side last time out, hitting 96 off 54 deliveries.
Dinesh Karthik has been RCB's star batter so far in the tournament, coming in lower down the order and upping the strike-rate. He has 210 runs in the tournament so far at a blistering strike rate of 205.88.
Equally effective with the ball has been Sri Lankan leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, whose lethal googly has been bamboozling batters in the tournament and has earned Hasaranga 11 wickets so far this year.
Combined with Josh Hazlewood who took 4 for 25 in his last outing and the equally potent Harshal Patel, RCB's bowling line-up will be a tricky prospect for Sunrisers.
The Hyderabad side have been on their own good run of form winning their last four games after a difficult start in the competition.
Their middle order has turned around the batting problems they experienced early in the tournament and the combination of Tripathi, Pooran and Markram has provided them with significantly more fire power. Kane Williamson has also been a stable presence scoring runs at the top of the order.
T Natarajan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have both been successful in picking up wickets in the powerplay and at the death for Sunrisers, aided by the express pace of Umran Malik.
Whilst the Sunrisers are a very competitive outfit, they may struggle if faced with a big total which RCB are capable of producing.
Jos Buttler has been in fine form (Credit: IPL)
The captains, both at the top of the order, will be a good match-up. Both Williamson and du Plessis have shown their form in the tournament and both are equally capable batsmen in the format. They will both need to perform to bolster their side's chances.
As ever for RCB, if Kohli and Maxwell are able to get going with the bat then RCB will be able to post a very competitive score. Whilst neither has reached their full potential in the tournament so far, they have shown flashes of form and are a dangerous prospect for any side.
The battle of the yorker bowlers will also be an interesting contest, with both Mohammed Siraj for RCB and Malik for Sunrisers with ability to bowl siring toe-crushers. While Malik is undoubtedly the quicker and has turned many heads so far in the tournament with his blistering pace, Siraj is a proven match winner for RCB and is a very challenging prospect for batters.
Matches played: 20
Royal Challengers Bangalore wins: 8
Sunrisers Hyderabad wins: 11
No results: 1
Temperatures will stay around 33 degrees Celsius once the sun goes down for the match with humidity levels around 50 per cent.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, Shahbaz Ahamad, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Sherfane Rutherford, Jason Behrendorff, Suyash Prabhudessai, Chama Milind, Aneeshwar Gautam, Karn Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Luvnith Sisodia (injury replacement: Rajat Patidar), David Willey
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, Umran Malik, Washington Sundar, Nicholas Pooran, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Priyam Garg, Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Kartik Tyagi, Shreyas Gopal, Jagadeesha Suchith, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen, Romario Shepherd, Sean Abbott, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Saurabh Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis, Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik, Shahbaz Ahmed, Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Shashank Singh, Marco Jansen, Jagadeesha Suchith, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik
Virat Kohli is no longer RCB's skipper (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
Bet 365 has RCB at 4/6 and Sunrisers at 6/5, whereas Paddy power has RCB at 8/11 and Sunrisers at 11/10.
It looks like it will be a tight match with both sides in form but RCB look to have slightly more firepower with the bat, and they take the favourite spot, but only just.
In the UK, Sky Sports have exclusive rights to this year's tournament, with matches available on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket.
Fans in India can watch all of the action on Star Sports.
Elsewhere in the world, viewers in Australia can watch the IPL on Fox Sports while in New Zealand, Sky Sport will provide coverage.
Willow TV and Flow Sports will broadcast the tournament in the United States and the Caribbean, respectively.
Fans in MENA can catch the action on beIN Sports while in South Africa, SuperSport have the rights.
The IPL can also be streamed on Disney+ and Hotstar in certain areas.
Welcome to www.thecricketer.com - the online home of the world’s oldest cricket magazine. Breaking news, interviews, opinion and cricket goodness from every corner of our beautiful sport, from village green to national arena.