Royal Challengers Bangalore's fight to remain in contention for the play-off rounds of the Indian Premier league will face the ultimate test on Thursday as Virat Kohli's men host table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have already procured their tickets to the advanced stages of the competition.
RCB began their resistance against elimination with a five-wicket win against Delhi Daredevils followed by a massive 10-wicket conquest of Kings XI Punjab, therefore keeping alive their hopes of remaining in the IPl.
But in Hyderabad, RCB have an opponent that has prevailed with utter dominance through most stages of the ongoing tournament, claiming nine wins from 12 games and collecting 18 points in the process.
The Royal Challengers, on the other hand, have lost seven out of the 12 matches they have played so far, and are presently under pressure to win every match besides praying for some other results in the league to go their way.
The main cause of concern that has been eating RCB is their huge dependence on skipper Virat Kohli and South African maverick AB de Villiers. The duo has combined to score 872 runs out of the team's total of 1895 runs, with Kohli having tallied 514 runs in 12 matches and de Villiers collecting 358 runs in 10 innings.
In the bowling department, medium pacer Umesh Yadav has so far delivered for the team, claiming 17 wickets in the 12 matches he has featured in.
As for Sunrisers Hyderabad, opener Shikhar Dhawan and skipper Kane Williamson have always led from the front.
Williamson has contributed an emphatic total of 544 runs in 12 matches for the Hyderabad side, while Dhawan has tallied 368 runs in 11 matches. One would definitely be expecting these two massive scorers to dominate Thursday's game and help their side hold on to the top spot for a while longer, until the end of the league stage.
On the bowling front, SRH boasts of a variety of attacking bowlers including Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddharth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma, Rashid Khan and Shakib-Al-Hasan.
That being said, RCB have a daunting opponent to conquer on Thursday to keep their hopes alive.