When Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers are in the team, the Royal Challengers Bangalore, with hardly a second thought, choose to bowl first if they win the toss. However, with those two superstars missing and Shane Watson at the helm, RCB went for a different tactic in their second match of IPL 2017, and that gave them the win they were looking for.
It will be interesting to see if RCB stick to the win-toss-bat-first mantra when they travel to Indore to play the Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2017 Match 8 on Monday.
Confirmed team news and lineups of KXIP vs RCB
When Watson decided to bat first at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, traditionally a chasing ground, the plan for RCB was to put up a really big score and pretty much bat the Delhi Daredevils out of the game.
That plan did not quite work out the way they would have envisaged, with RCB needing a superlative bowling performance and a car crash of a chase from DD to defend what was a well below par total.
If they do decide to bat first again, RCB cannot expect their bowlers to defend a small total.
Kings XI Punjab have too much firepower and, crucially, experience and if the RCB batsmen end up underwhelming one more time, they will crash to their second defeat in three matches in the Indian Premier League this season.
Chris Gayle needs to score the 25 runs needed to become the first player to 10,000 runs in T20s, before adding a fair few more to his kitty.
Shane Watson did the business with the ball last time out, but he needs to do better with the willow as well.
Mandeep Singh cannot keep looking good for about ten minutes and then getting out – he needs to make better use of his starts.
Kedar Jadhav has been the lone bright spot in RCB's batting so far, but he cannot do it all alone.
Maybe, just maybe, Jadhav will have help from this game onwards, with AB De Villiers quite possibly set for a return to the lineup after a back injury. However, with or without AB, the likes of Gayle, Watson and Mandeep need to be more consistent with the bat.
The Kings XI Punjab batting is far from a consistent force, though.
Hashim Amla was not fluent in his innings, while Manan Vohra is a bit like Mandeep – lot of talent and flash, but absolutely no consistency.
Wriddhiman Saha needs to find the form from three years ago when he made such a big impact at No.3.
Glenn Maxwell and David Miller, however, were cool, calm and collected in the chase against the Rising Pune Supergiant, easing their team home with a nice partnership.
That is exactly what Kings XI need the majority of the time – the M&M partnership striking gold together. If that happens in this match against RCB, KXIP will most likely make it two wins out of two in this season's IPL.
Where, when which channel to watch live
KXIP vs RCB is set to begin at 8pm IST (3.30pm BST). TV and live streaming information for the match is below.
India: TV: Sony Six, Sony Six HD, Sony Max (Hindi), Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD (Telugu, Tamil, Bengali). Live Streaming: Hotstar.
International: Live Streaming: Cricketgateway.
Middle East: TV: OSN Sports Cricket HD. Live Streaming: OSN Play.
UK: TV: Sky Sports 2. Live Streaming: Watch Sky Sports.
USA: TV: Willow TV. Live Streaming: Willow TV Online.
South Africa: TV: SuperSport Two. Live Streaming: SuperSport Live Video.
