With a playoffs spot at stake, Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to shrug off the disappointment of back-to-back defeats when they face Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League at Sharjah on Saturday.

Virat Kohli and Co will have their work cut out as SRH will be confident after their crushing win over Delhi Capitals.

Chennai Super Kings, who are the only ones to be out of reckoning, have spiced up the playoff race with their last-ball win over Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday night.

Going by the current standings, RCB are better-placed at number two and they need to win one of their remaining two games – against SRH or DC – to make the cut. And even if RCB lose both their matches and stay on 14 points, they can still qualify. But for that they need favourable results from other games.

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But RCB can ill afford to lose both their last two games as it will affect their NRR.

SRH, on the other hand,are in do-or-die territory. Sitting on the sixth spot with 10 points from 12 games, the Hyderabad outfit need to win their remaining two matches – against RCB and MI – to reach 14 points to stay in the reckoning.

If that happens, SRH’s progress to the playoffs is all but assured because of a superior NRR than all the teams which can finish on 14 points. RCB need to regroup as their confidence definitely took a beating after crushing defeats at the hands of MI and CSK.

RCB results in IPL 2020

Match Day/Date/Time Venue Result Total points for season
SRH vs RCB 21 Sep, Mon (1930) Dubai RCB won by 10 runs 2
KXIP vs RCB 24 Sep, Thu (1930) Dubai RCB lost by 97 runs 2
RCB vs MI 28 Sep, Mon (1930) Dubai RCB won Super Over after a tied match 4
RCB vs RR 3 Oct, Sat (1530) Abu Dhabi RCB won by 8 wickets 6
RCB vs DC 5 Oct, Mon (1930) Dubai RCB lost by 59 runs 6
CSK vs RCB 10 Oct, Sat (1930) Dubai RCB won by 37 runs 8
RCB vs KKR 12 Oct, Mon (1930) Sharjah RCB won by 82 runs 10
RCB vs KXIP 15 Oct, Thu (1930) Sharjah RCB lost by 8 wickets 10
RR vs RCB 17 Oct, Sat (1530) Dubai RCB won by 7 wickets 12
KKR vs RCB 21 Oct, Wed (1930) Abu Dhabi RCB won by 8 wickets 14
RCB vs CSK 25 Oct, Sun (1530) Dubai RCB lost by 8 wickets 14
MI vs RCB 28 Oct, Wed (1930) Abu Dhabi RCB lost by 5 wickets 14

SRH results in IPL 2020

Match Day/Date/Time Venue Result Total points
SRH vs RCB 21 Sep, Mon (1930) Dubai SRH lost by 10 runs 0
KKR vs SRH 26 Sep, Sat (1930) Abu Dhabi SRH lost by 7 wickets 0
DC vs SRH 29 Sep, Tue (1930) Abu Dhabi SRH won by 15 runs 2
CSK vs SRH 2 Oct, Fri (1930) Dubai SRH won by 7 runs 4
MI vs SRH 4 Oct, Sun (1530) Sharjah SRH lost by 34 runs 4
SRH vs KXIP 8 Oct, Thu (1930) Dubai SRH won by 69 runs 6
SRH vs RR 11 Oct, Sun (1530) Dubai SRH lost by 5 wickets 6
SRH vs CSK 13 Oct, Tue (1930) Dubai SRH lost by 20 runs 6
SRH vs KKR 18 Oct, Sun (1530) Abu Dhabi SRH lost Super Over 6
RR vs SRH 22 Oct, Thu  (1930) Dubai SRH won by 8 wickets 8
KXIP vs SRH 24 Oct, Sat (1930) Dubai SRH lost by 12 runs 8
SRH vs DC 27 Oct, Tue (1930) Dubai SRH won by 88 runs 10

While CSK defeated Kohli’s men by eight wickets in Dubai, MI beat RCB by five wickets in their last tie in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night for their second defeat on the trot.

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For RCB, batting has been their strength with the likes of Kohli, in-form opener Devdutt Padikkal, and AB de Villiers doing the job. Strike rates have been an issue for players not named de Villiers

Young Josh Philippe, who replaced Finch in the last match, scored a handy 33 up front but the team’s lower middle-order, which has the likes of Shivam Dube, Chris Morris and Gurkeerat Singh Mann, needs to take more responsibility.

Their biggest challenge will be to counter star Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who remains an unsolved mystery for batsmen in the 2020 IPL season. The pressure he builds with dot balls has helped SRH consistently.

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On the bowling front, RCB have been hit by a split webbing suffered by Navdeep Saini, who missed their last game. Dale Steyn, who replaced him, was rusty and leaked runs and is likely to be replaced by Isuru Udana.

SRH, on the hand, were clinical in their 88-run win over DC and would look to continue in the same vein.

Skipper David Warner (66) and Wridddhiman Saha (87), were a treat to watch in their 107-run opening partnership against DC, while Manish Pandey (44 not out) has found form in the middle order

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Defending a mammoth 219/2, Rashid (3/7) led the SRH bowling unit as they dished out an impressive show to dismiss DC for 131. Besides Rashid, Sandeep Sharma and T Natarajan were impressive as well.

Head-to-head

Mat RCB wins SRH wins RCB win% SRH win%
RCB vs SRH 15 7 8 47 53

RCB squad

Batsmen Bowlers All-rounders Wicketkeeper
Virat Kohli Yuzvendra Chahal Moeen Ali Parthiv Patel
AB de Villiers Mohammed Siraj Pawan Negi Shahbaz Ahmed
Gurkeerat Mann Umesh Yadav Shivam Dube Joshua Philippe
Devdutt Padikkal Navdeep Saini Washington Sundar
Aaron Finch Adam Zampa Christopher Morris
Dale Steyn Isuru Udana
Pavan Deshpande

SRH squad

Batsmen Bowlers All-rounders Wicketkeepers
Kane Williamson Rashid Khan Vijay Shankar Jonny Bairstow
David Warner Bhuvneshwar Kumar Mohammad Nabi Wriddhiman Saha
Manish Pandey Khaleel Ahmed Abhishek Sharma Shreevats Goswami
Priyam Garg Sandeep Sharma Abdul Samad
Virat Singh Siddarth Kaul Fabian Allen
Billy Stanlake Sandeep Bavanaka
T Natarajan Sanjay Yadav
Shahbaz Nadeem
Basil Thampi

Match starts at 7.30 pm IST and will be broadcast on the Star Sports network and Disney+Hotstar

With PTI inputs