Royal Challengers Bangalore

Apart from the duo, Rinku Singh and David Wiese hit 18 and 12 not out respectively in an innings where Kolkata shined in power-play, slowed in middle-overs and got a finishing kick in the death overs, which fetched them 69 runs. For Bangalore, Wanindu Hasaranga and Vyshak Vijaykumar were superb in picking two wickets each while Mohammed Siraj took a wicket and got back the purple cap.

It is also the first reverse fixture of IPL 2023 to kickstart the second half of the league stage. The last time these two teams met in the competition, Kolkata won by 81 runs at the Eden Gardens. Bangalore enter Wednesday's match with back-to-back wins, while Kolkata arrive after four straight losses in the tournament.

But Patel immediately bounced back by having Ashwin slog straight to deep mid-wicket and gave away two singles on the last two balls to secure a seven-run win. Asked by fellow pacer Mohammed Siraj in a video posted on IPL's social media accounts, Patel said he had it in his mind to bowl difficult balls.

After losing two wickets early in the Power-play, Du Plessis and Maxwell held the fort and stitched a 127-run stand for the third wicket. After the duo was dismissed within two overs, RCB lost the next five wickets in quick succession. Put in to bat first, RCB suffered two early blows in the form of Virat Kohli and Shahbaz Ahmed. Then, Faf du Plessis and Glen Maxwell got into the rebuilding act and took the Power-play score to 62/2.

While RR stuck to the same playing XI, RCB made one change as David Willey came in for Wayne Parnell. "Looking at the conditions, our side and their side. So we'd prefer bowling. The dressing room is simple, honest and we need to respect the way we are playing. We are starting with the same XI, might add someone later on," RR skipper Sanju Samson said at the toss.

But Bangalore had the advantage of having the powerplay in their favour in both innings -- 59/0 with the bat and reducing Punjab to 43/4. Siraj was well-supported by Wanindu Hasaranga, Wayne Parnell and Harshal Patel chipping in with wickets. With some superb fielding coming into play, Bangalore managed to bowl out Punjab for 150 in 18.2 overs.

Kohli, on the other hand, made a 47-ball 59, but suffered a slowdown in the middle overs. It resulted in Bangalore losing wickets in a cluster and didn't get the desired finishing kick as they lost all four wickets in the death overs, with Punjab bowlers using cutters well and not bowling much fuller deliveries to keep Bangalore below 180.

Maxwell struck a 36-ball 76, smashing three fours and eight sixes while and Du Plessis hammered a 33-ball 62 as they came together for a sensational counter-attacking 126-run partnership for the third wicket that helped Royal Challengers Bangalore recover from 15/2 in the second over to keep on course for a massive chase.

Conway started slowly but struck some brilliant shots in a superb display of power-hitting, blasting 83 off 45 deliveries while Dube smashed 52 off 27 balls, blasting five towering sixes, as CSK made superb use of a good pitch and feasted on the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling as skipper Faf du Plessis missed a trick or two by failing to make better use of his spinners after opting to bowl first.

"We will bowl first. I think the nature of pitches will turn, but 180-200 will be a nice target to chase. It is quite a small ground and the ball travels, the surface is good and a little bit of dew could help. No changes in our starting XI but got some tricks up our sleeve for the impact player," Faf du Plessis said at the toss.