Their playoff hopes over, a shattered Royal Challengers Bangalore will only have pride to play for against strong title-contenders Chennai Super Kings in their last league match of the IPl-7 here on Saturday.
The 30-run defeat against KKR dashed RCB’s hopes, a massive blow to team owner Dr Vijay Mallya, who splurged `14 crore to buy all-rounder Yuvraj Singh. Virat Kohli, who could do no wrong in the last IPl by scoring over 600 runs, is now in the eye of the storm for RCB’s doomed campaign.However, the RCB skipper would be eyeing a consolation win to bid a graceful adieu to the tournament.
The formidable CSK have already qualified for the playoffs and would like to bounce back after they faced a six-wicket rout at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday.MS Dhoni’s men would also be gunning for revenge against the RCB, who pulled off a five-wicket win in a thrilling match on May 18.The batting lineup, which looked strong on paper before the tournament, has let the RCB down on several occasion. The poor form of explosive opener Chris Gayle and stocky pocket-dynamite Parthiv Patel, has exposed the frailties of the lineup, which is currently over-relying on Yuvraj.
The left-hander has done reasonably well but the see-saw opening arrangements of Patel and Yogesh Takawale has not clicked when faced with good attacks.All but assured of a berth in the play-offs, CSK would be aiming to quickly get over the shock losses against KKR and SRH.