Royal Challengers Bangalore who are virtually out of the play-off race would look to notch up a pride-saving win on their home turf and give their fans something to cheer about. Meanwhile, Rajasthan who currently are placed second from the bottom in the points table still stand a realistic chance of making it to the play-offs.
RCB who brought their otherwise disastrous campaign back on track with three consecutive wins had their play-off chances literary blown off with a loss to Delhi capital in the last match. With nothing to loose, RCB could play some fearless brand of cricket and act as party spoilers to their opponents and some other teams who are still in the run for the play-off berth.
Rajasthan, with 10 points from 12 games, still have a theoretical chance to make it to the playoffs, provided they do not lose any of their remaining two matches. They would also want table-toppers Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals to defeat their respective opponents.
The change in captaincy from Rahane to Smith has worked well for the Royals as they saw their batting lynch-pin Rahane getting back to form with an elegant century against Delhi Capitals. RR come into the game high on confidence, winning their last encounter against SRH on their home turf at Jaipur.
Rajasthan have also been lifted with some noteworthy performances by the young turk Riyan Parag, who has played some trail blazing cameos down the order. Shreyas Gopal has been having a fine run with the ball and would look to deceive a couple of RCB batsman with his googlies. There have been some fiery spells by both Oshane Thomas and Varun Aaron who have given the 'Blues' some early breakthroughs with the new ball in recent encounters.
Hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore would once again look towards their top three batsmen - Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, AB De Villiers to fire with the bat. and do bulk of their run scoring. The 'Red-black Brigade' also need to fix the middle order glitch post the departure of English all-rounder Moeen Ali.
There is plenty of pace arsenal in RCB' bowling armoury with tearaway speedsters like Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini. Kohli would once again look towards his spin king Yuzvendra Chahal to cast his web around the Royals batsmen.
So the business end of the IPL is going to witness some virtual knockouts and one of them is going to unfold later in the evening at Bengaluru.
Previous Match XIs:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Shivam Dube, Heinrich Klaasen, Gurkeerat Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane, Liam Livingstone, Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Ashton Turner, Parag Das, Stuart Binny, Shreyas Gopal, Oshane Thomas, Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Aaron.