IPL 2023 SRH vs RCB preview: Bangalore eye victory to get close to playoffs

A victory in this game would put Bangalore ahead in the race for the playoffs as they would play their last game at Chinnaswamy and would have a better net run rate than Mumbai Indians

With a huge win in their last game against the Rajasthan Royals, the Royal Challengers Bangalore have gotten a hudgfe edge over the rest of the team competing for the remaining three playoff places. Mumbai's loss against Lucknow only gave a boost to that edge.

RCB face Sunrisers Hyderabad in a must-win game tonight. Hyderabad are not the best team in the league, but cannot be taken lightly given what Delhi Capitals did to Punjab Kings’ playoffs dreams on Wednesday. Therefore Bangalore need to tread lightly on their feet and try and secure a win anyhow. 

Aiden Markram-led Hyderabad on the other hand would be aiming to finish on a high at home as they play their last game at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Uppal. This has been a really bad season for them and the only joy that they could give to their supporters is a win in the last home game.

SRH vs RCB, IPL 2023 Match Details

Match Number- 65

Series- Indian Premier League 2023

Date: Thursday, May 18, 2023

Time: 07:30 PM IST

Venue: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad 

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, Pitch Report

Hyderabad wicket has been brilliant for run scoring. Although with the season nearing its end, the pitch is providing grip to spinners early on, but if the batter gets set, they could utilise the wicket to their advantage and score big runs as well. 

SRH vs RCB, Hyderabad Weather Forecast

The temperatures would be in the higher 30s at the start of the game at around 07:00 pm IST but will go down slowly. Humidity on the other hand will be in the lower 20s at the start and gradually increase to nearly 35% between 11-12 pm IST. 

Royal Challengers Bangalore playing combination

Wayne Parnell was brilliant with the ball in the last game so he would retain his place in the playing 11 for sure. Michael Bracewell was good with the ball, but not so with the bat though and might find him out of the playing 11 and replaced by Wanindu Hasaranga. Apart from this change, the team would look to retain the remaining 10 players that played the last game. 

RCB predicted playing 11

Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Michael Bracewell/ Wanindu Hasaranga, Anuj Rawat, Wayne Parnell, Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj

Impact Substitute Options: Shahbaz Ahmed, Siddarth Kaul, Kedar Jadhav, Josh Hazlewood, Vijaykumar Vyshak

Sunrisers Hyderabad playing combination

Hyderabad could do nothing at all here as they have tried all the players and none have been brilliant apart from Heinrich Klaasen. Harry Brook has been a complete failure and it would be better if Glenn Phillips is given two more games in his place. One among Marco Jansen or Fazalhaq Farooqi would be the fourth overseas player alongside Aiden Markram. 

SRH predicted playing 11

Anmolpreet Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram (c), Heinrich Klaasen, Glenn Phillips, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Impact Substitute Options: Harry Brook, Marco Jansen, Kartik Tyagi, Umran Malik, Vivrant Sharma

SRH vs RCB, IPL 2023 Live Streaming and Broadcast

The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore can be live streamed on the Jio Cinema app across ios and Android platforms on phones, tablets, smart TVs and laptops. The match can also be viewed on the TV channels on the Star Sports Network.