SRH vs RCB: All eyes on Kohli as Bangalore play Hyderabad in must-win game

Virat Kohli will be in focus as Royal Challengers Bangalore look to strengthen their claim for an IPL playoff berth in their mustwin match against laggards Sunrisers Hyderabad here on ThursdayRCB are currently in the fifth spot with 12 points from as many games and face two mustwin matches to guarantee their playoff spotSRH on the other hand are out of the tournament and languishing at the ninth spot with eight points from 12 matchesAlongside skipper Faf du Plessis Kohli is one of the topscorers for RCB but after backtoback failures 18 against Rajasthan Royals and 1 against Mumbai Indians the maestro would be looking to produce his best against SRH and help his sides causeDu Plessis has been leading the side from the front and is in scintillating form occupying the top spot in rungetters list with 631 runs from 12 games at an average of 5736Kohli is the next best RCB batter with 438 runs averaging 3981 with six fifties But unlike Du Plessis Kohli has not been consistent enough and has struggled with his strikerate at timesThe other batter RCB would be banking on is Glenn Maxwell who has made a great impact with his sparkling knocks which includes five halfcenturiesRCB are high on confidence after a commanding 112run demolition of Rajasthan Royals in their last gameRiding on Du Plessis and Maxwells backtoback fifties RCB posted 171 for 5 and then Wayne Parnell 310 led the way in the company of Michael Bracewell 216 Karn Sharma 219 and Mohammed Siraj 110 to bundle out RR for a paltry 59On the bowling front the onus would again be on Parnell Siraj and Bracewell to deliver the goodsThe last match also saw RCB return to winning ways after backtoback defeats against MI and Delhi CapitalsSRH on the other hand will play for pride after becoming the second team to crash out of the tournamentAlso Read IPL 2023 Points Table GT become first team to reach playoffs SRH crash out of lastfourSRH would look to give their fans something to cheer about by registering wins in their remaining two gamesIt has been lacklustre outing for SRH this season both in batting as well as bowling departmentBarring Heinrich Klaase and to some extent Rahul Tripathi no other batter could deliver for the team SRH were hit hard by the poor form of their skipper Aiden Markram as much was expected of the South AfricanHarry Brook showed sparks initially before fading away while Mayank Agarwal was nowhere to be noticedAmong SRH bowlers the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the most successful with 14 wickets from 12 games but he too didnt look at his bestMayank Markande 12 wickets from 10 games impressed but SRH suffered heavily due to the poor form of Marco Jansen T Natarajan and Umran MalikTeams fromRoyal Challengers Bangalore Faf du Plessis c Akash Deep Finn Allen Anuj Rawat Avinash Singh Manoj Bhandage Michael Bracewell Wanindu Hasaranga Dinesh Karthik wk Siddarth Kaul Virat Kohli Mahipal Lomror Glenn Maxwell Mohammed Siraj Wayne Parnell Harshal Patel Suyash Prabhudessai Rajan Kumar Shahbaz Ahmed Karn Sharma Himanshu Sharma Sonu Yadav Vijaykumar Vyshak Kedar JadhavSunrisers Hyderabad Aiden Markram c Abdul Samad Rahul Tripathi Glenn Phillips Abhishek Sharma Marco Jansen Fazalhaq Farooqi Kartik Tyagi Bhuvneshwar Kumar T Natarajan Umran Malik Harry Brook Mayank Agarwal Heinrich Klaasen Adil Rashid Mayank Markande Vivrant Sharma Samarth Vyas Sanvir Singh Upendra Yadav Mayank Dagar Nitish Kumar Reddy Akeal Hosein and Anmolpreet SinghMatch starts at 730 PMThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever