Match details

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (7th, P12, W5, L7) vs Delhi Capitals (5th, P12, W6, L6)
Bengaluru, 7.30pm IST (2pm GMT)

Big picture: Has the surge come too late for RCB and DC?

Form guide

Royal Challengers Bengaluru WWWWL (last five completed games, most recent first)
Delhi Capitals WLWWL

Team news and Impact Player strategy

Royal Challengers Bengaluru
RCB have used either Glenn Maxwell or Lockie Ferguson as their fourth overseas player in recent games, depending on conditions and opposition. Maxwell's record against Kuldeep Yadav (79 off 45 balls, four dismissals, strike rate of 175.55) could prompt RCB to play him in this match, given how much better DC's attack looks when the left-arm wristspinner is able to control proceedings. If RCB play Ferguson instead, expect Mahipal Lomror to play rather than Vijaykumar Vyshak.

Possible XII 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Faf du Plessis (capt), 3 Will Jacks, 4 Rajat Patidar, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Swapnil Singh, 9 Karn Sharma, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Vijaykumar Vyshak, 12 Yash Dayal.

Delhi Capitals
DC coach Ricky Ponting has confirmed Axar Patel will captain the team in Pant's absence. He also suggested that David Warner - who has missed four successive games with a hand injury - could be fit to return, having trained on both Friday and Saturday. Ponting, meanwhile, hinted at an opposition-specific bowling selection, with the Australian quick Jhye Richardson in line to play as a new-ball specialist to try and break through a strong RCB top order.

Which Indian batter comes in for Pant remains to be seen. Prithvi Shaw is an option, but with Ponting indicating that Abishek Porel was likely to continue opening, DC may prefer a middle-order batter, in which case Yash Dhull or Kumar Kushagra could get a game.

Possible XII 1 Jake Fraser-McGurk, 2 Abishek Porel (wk), 3 David Warner/Shai Hope, 4 Yash Dhull/Kumar Kushagra, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Lalit Yadav/Sumit Kumar, 8 Rasikh Salam, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mukesh Kumar, 11 Jhye Richardson, 12 Khaleel Ahmed.

In the spotlight

Stats that matter

Pitch and conditions

It's no surprise that the match that produced the record IPL total and the record run aggregate for any T20 game came at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. It's a bit of a surprise, though, that there have been no 200-plus totals in any of the other four matches at the venue so far this season. There was early help for the new ball in the most recent match here, where RCB bowled Gujarat Titans out for 147, and it will be interesting to see if conditions on Sunday night bring fast bowlers into the game in a similar way. It has rained on and off in the evenings in the week leading up to the match, and weather interruptions could be likely.

Quotes

"The position I was going [in] to bat was very challenging for me, because this year I've got a new role, getting to play in the middle order, so I've done some changes [] I spoke with Virat bhai, DK bhai, who have a lot of experience, so I think that helped a lot [] If you're going at the top of the order, you get some extra cushion to think and plan your innings, but if you're going around the 10th-11th over, you don't get that cushion. You have to be really quick in making your decision. It helped me a lot to talk with the great players in our team."
Rajat Patidar on the move from the top three to the middle order this season

"Obviously Rishabh Pant is not there, so we've got to think about an Indian middle-order player potentially to come in for him. David Warner missed the last game. He got that nasty knock on his hand about a month ago now, hasn't played a game since. He trained really strongly yesterday. He's here now. He'll be up hitting balls in the middle now, so he'll be doing some more batting today, so hopefully he's available for selection tomorrow. There's a chance against RCB as well, with their dominance at the top of the order, that we might think about changing our bowling line-up as well, someone like a Jhye Richardson to bring into the side as a specialist new-ball bowler to potentially take early wickets against RCB."
DC head coach Ricky Ponting on the selection calls he's mulling over