The competition is in knock-out mode with a place in Saturday’s Indian Premier League up for grabs.
Watch Royal Challengers Bangalore v Chennai Super Kings: Live IPL Streaming
Start time: 14.30 GMT
Watch Royal Challengers Bangalore v Chennai Super Kings: Live Streaming
Venue: Wankhede Stadium
IPL Squads
Chennai: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), M Vijay, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, R Ashwin, Shadab Jakati, Michael Hussey, Albie Morkel, D Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, G Bailey, T Southee, F du Plessis, Joginder Sharma, S Anirudha, Yo Mahesh, A Mukund, W Saha, Scott Styris, Sudeep Tyagi, K Vasudevadas, G Vignesh.
Bangalore: Daniel Vettori (capt), Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarwal, S Aravind, Zaheer Khan, B Arun Karthik, G Muralidharan, A Mithun, Mohd Kaif, R Ninan, Asad Pathan, C Gayle, A B de Villiers, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Saurabh Tiwary, Johan van der Wath, Syed Mohammed, Rilee Roussow, Jonathan Vandiar, Abrar Kazi.
Prediction
The two most successful teams of the league stage will clash against each other in the first IPL play-off match.
The winner of this match will book a berth in the final, while the losing team will face the winner of the second play-off match between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders.
Bangalore will heavily rely on the form of their star player Chris Gayle, who is in intimidating form. He has so far scored 511 runs from just nine games including two centuries.
Others in the ranks are Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Saurabh Tiwary, who are capable of being equally destructive as Gayle.
The bowling department received a major boost with the comeback of their skipper Daniel Vettori, who missed two crucial matches due to a nagging knee injury.
Zaheer Khan, Abhimanyu Mithun and Sreenath Aravind also seem to have found their rhythm, which is good news for the Bangalore outfit.
Chennai led by MS Dhoni have been pretty consistent throughout the tournament.
The bowling is being led by Doug Bollinger and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who have been at their miserly best in the tournament but were let down by their batsmen in the last match.
They have been ably supported by South African all-rounder Albie Morkel and left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati.
With the head-to-head record this season reading 1-1, the match between the two south teams is expected to be an engrossing affair.
Royal Challengers to sneak through.
Key Men
MS Dhoni – The team’s captain and figurehead will need to be in top form and at his most inspiring for this crunch clash.
Virat Kohli – The latest pin-up boy can enhance his growing reputation with another fine performance.