In a battle of laggards, not much to celebrate for Bangalore and RR

RR skipper Steven Smith

Placed seventh and eighth on the IPL points table, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore face off at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here tonight knowing fully well that even a win will not make for too much celebration. But the sad fact is that too many other results, besides the winner winning the respective final game too, will have to go their way if either of them are to progress to the playoffs.

That said, even the chance not to finish last in the eight-team league could be motivation enough for either side. RR will also look to give Steve Smith, who took over the captaincy midway, a nice parting gift even as RCB will look to do the same with Marcus Stoinis, both Aussies home-bound for World Cup preparations. RR, of course, earlier lost the services of Jos Butler, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer while RCB have had to do without Moeen Ali.

RCB have, of course, missed out on many local players too over the seasons gone past. One among them is Shreyas Gopal, another Bangalore-based player ignored by the RCB think tank despite his continued success with the Karnataka team in all formats.

Picked up by RR for his base price of Rs 20 in the last mega auction, Gopal, who but for his modesty can claim the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers to be his bunnies, has been brilliant with the ball, great with his catching and good in the limited opportunities with the bat. No wonder Smith was effusive with this praise of the all-rounder.

"He has been terrific for us. Every time we have given him the ball, he has done a job for us. He has got big players out [read Kohli and De Villiers], which is really important," said Smith at the pre-match press conference here.

"I think his batting is underrated as well. He has come in and played some very handy cameos for us at the end that have helped us get over the line on a couple of occasions and taken some really good catches throughout the tournament as well. He is a complete package," added Smith.

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