LSG and RCB are the two teams that are dominating and are quite closer to reaching the play-offs. The owners of RCB and especially LSG who is Mr. Sanjiv Goenka would be over the moon as his team is outplaying each and every opponent. RCB and LSG would now aim to reach the top 4 as soon as possible and then later aim for a top 2 finish; the top 2 teams get another shot at the finals that’s why the teams compete for that two spots.
RCB and LSG clash can be said as a dress rehearsal for the final match as both the teams are flawless as both bat deep which is a must as the targets have been in excess of 160+.
All in all, only one thing separates RCB and LSG which is RCB’s death bowling; they need to fix that ASAP as this problem for a lot of years now; their bowlers are conceding 70 odd runs is unacceptable at this level; due to such bowling, they are making life tough for them, in the match against CSK the bowlers were taken to cleaners by the duo of Uthappa and Dube.
LSG would make sure that they are keeping the firepower ready for the death overs as they have the puissant Stoinis.
RCB and LSG Strategy
RCB in particular is pumped up as Dinesh Karthik has taken the responsibility of taking the team out of trouble and also finishing the games single-handedly.
RCB know that their star batter Virat Kohli is badly out of form as he is getting out on run-out and soft dismissals. In fact, his wicket has been quite easy to get. In all this chaos, RCB fans are dejected, they are missing the old Virat who used to be aggressive and score tons of runs.
RCB needs to pull a rabbit out of a hat to get rid of dangerous KL Rahul who is on fire after his thunderstorm century against the MI. His knock has made sure that MI is virtually out of the tournament.
The likes of Siraj and Harshal need to be careful while executing Yorkers and avoid giving half volleys as the batters would cash in on it; the bowlers at the death should use pace variation and outfox the batters and if possible, go for wide Yorker. If RCB gets their death overs problem sorted out then they would be unbeatable and most importantly they would be bossing the game.
The journey of LSG has been quite fruitful so far where the likes of Avesh Khan are providing major breakthroughs and slowing down the run rate. The skipper KL Rahul should use Stoinis as a pinch hitter and give him a long rope by promoting him to no.3 or 4 place as making him bat at No.8 position is like doing injustice to his talent.
We should not forget how Stoinis played a blinder of cameo against RR but his batting position didn’t allow him to finish the game. All in all, LSG has a little less to worry which is a worrying sign as most of the time there is a bad slide that ruins everything.
