Chris Gayle back as RCB seek lift in points table

Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers both are in lower-half of points table

Hyderabad: Their winning momentum punctured after a loss to Rising Pune Supergiants, Sunrisers Hyderabad would look to get back to their winning ways when they take on a struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore in an IPL Twenty20 match.

RCB won in the previous meeting between the two sides, but much water has flowed under the bridge since then with Sunrisers demonstrating great improvement.

Sunrisers have a decent six points from an equal number of matches, having won and lost three games each. Though they lost to Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders in their first two matches, Sunrisers went on to win their next three matches against Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Lions and Kings XI Punjab.

However, the victory march of the Hyderabad side came to a halt when Pune defeated them by a comprehensive 34 runs via Duckworth Lewis method in a rain-affected match when the two met here on April 26.

The strong batting line up of SRH, except for opener Shikhar Dhawan, came crashing down as the team was dismissed for a poor 118 for loss of eight wickets.

Starting from captain David Warner, who was out for a duck, the other batsmen, including Aditya Tare, Eoin Morgan, Deepak Hooda and Moises Henrqiues, got out poorly and it was bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar who made the score decent with his 21 runs in eight balls.

Famed Sunrisers bowler Ashish Nehra, who returned to the side after recovering from an injury, had said it was one of those bad games which can happen to any team and to learn from the mistakes is the way forward.

Thankfully for SRH, it has in its ranks players of high stature, including Kane Williamson and Trent Boult, who have not played for the team so far in the tournament.

The team has the option of considering inclusion of Williamson, who has just been named Captain of New Zealand team, and Trent Boult to reinforce its strength.

It goes without saying that the famed batsmen of SRH are expected to come out with all guns blazing.

The home side has a potent bowling attack in Nehra, Bhuneshwar, latest sensation Mustafizur Rahman, Bipul Sharma and all-rounder Moises Henriques.

On the other hand, RCB is struggling to find momentum with just four points from five matches. The Bangalore side has won two and lost three matches so far.

Though RCB's batting strength is depleted following the exit of Chris Gayle, its Captain Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are in great form and the team's batting relies heavily on the duo.

Shane Watson has also been in good form with both bat and ball, while young Sarfraz Khan rose to the occasion a couple of times.

But RCB's main worry is their bowling, which did not fare too well against Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians and others. The RCB bowlers, including Yuzwendra Chahal, Kane Richardson, Iqbal Abdulla and Watson are expected to come up with a strong show.

SQUADS

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), Varun Aaron, Abu Nechi, S Arvind, Samuel Badree, Stuart Binny, Yuzuvendra Chahal, AB De Villiers, Praveen Dubey, Chris Gayle, Travis head, Iqbal Abdulla, Kedar Jadhav, Akshay Karnewar, Sarfraz Khan, Vikramjeet Malik, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Harshal Patel, Lokesh Rahul, Parveez Rasool, Kane Richardson, Sachin Baby, Mitchell Starc, Vikas Tokas, Shane Watson, David Wiese and Tabraiz Shamsi.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (C), Ashish Reddy, Ricky Bhui, Bipul Sharma, Trent Boult, Ben Cutting, Shikar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Deepak Hooda, Siddarth Kaul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhimanyu Midtun, Eoin Morgan, Mustafizur Rahman, Ashish Mehra, Naman Ojha, Vijay Shanker, Karn Sharma, Barinder Sran, T Suman, Aditya Tare, Kane Williamson and Yuvraj Singh

Match starts at 8:00 PM.