Chennai Super Kings Impact Subs: Shivam Dube, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Jamie Overton

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Lungi Ngidi, Yash Dayal

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Shaik Rasheed, Ayush Mhatre, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Dewald Brevis, Deepak Hooda, MS Dhoni(w/c), Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Matheesha Pathirana

Rajat Patidar: We would have fielded as well. But the wicket will not change that much. We will try to put a good total on the board and keep them under pressure.

MS Dhoni: We are looking to bowl first. We want to make the most of the last few games we have got. Try to look into next year and which indivdual will fit into what role.

Chennai Super Kings have won the toss and have opted to field

"Romario Shepherd too has marked his run-up. Was wondering if there might be a temptation to bring back Livingstone. He bowled well at Chepauk and the three lefties but 3 spinners at MCS might be too much of a luxury..." - more team news from Kaushik.

"This is a little more curious... Josh Hazlewood hasn't been part of the warmups as yet. He was in a huddle with the Flower-Bobat-Freddie WIlde. Now he's just casually chatting with Nathan Ellis by the pitch. The guy doing all the work on the side wicket is Nuwan Thushara!" says an eagle-eyed Kaushik. In 5 minutes he pings with another update - "Lungi Ngidi has just marked his run-up!! Hazlewood still chatting away with Ellis, looking more and more like a player that isn't playing today."

Pitch and Conditions: "It is an absolute pleasure to be here at the iconic venue the Chinnaswamy Stadium for another match. The first thing that I am very pleased about is up above, we have got clear skies and that is a blessing because we have had a lot of rain here in the last couple of days in Bengaluru. We are standing on pitch number 7 which is dead center, so the dimensions are equidistant - 64 meters either side and down the ground is 73 meters, so guys have been powering the ball over the fence here over the years. We have had a couple of varying scores on this pitch, 160 and a 200. This pitch looks very nice and the one thing that stands out - it is a little bit dry than we have seen throughout the tournament. Not much grass cover. There is not going to be as much tennis ball bounce as we have seen throughout the tournament so far that means the ball is going to come on a bit better and the batters can trust the bounce a little bit more. I would be surprised if the team batting first didn't set a high total." - inform Ian Bishop and Shane Watson.

"Not a worry (just yet) but there's a slight departure to Kohli's pre-match routine. He usually takes throwdowns and heads back, but today it was a brief throwdown stint which has been followed by a lot of lower-body stretches. That back has been a concern in the past. Shankar Basu also puts him through a round of hurdles and some brief running. All good to go!" - updates Kaushik. "Meanwhile, no sign of Phil Salt and it's Jacob Bethell going through the pre-match batting workout with DK," he adds.

The thing that has worked for Royal Challengers Bengaluru is the distribution of responsibility among all players. Yes, Virat Kohli is still their leading run-scorer but the others have chipped in with meaningful contributions and the sole burden is not on him. The bowling too, though Hazlewood and Krunal Pandya have been among the wickets, Bhuvneshwar and Suyash's hold up job at the other end has helped. That's why they are in the top half of the table. Meanwhile, it has been the complete opposite for the Chennai Super Kings. They are usually known for their Indian batters doing well but the likes of Tripathi, Hooda and Shankar have underperformed leaving them to rely on young batters like Mathre and Rasheed. Khaleel and Noor have bowled well but the others have not backed them up. In short they have not clicked as a unit nor have all three departments performed in unison. However, facing Royal Challengers Bengaluru gets the best out of them and their fans will be hoping today will be the start towards a strong finish to the season. Toss and teams coming up. Stay tuned..

"Hello from MCS, where the weather seems to be holding up well," greets Kaushik Rangarajan from the ground. "Quite an atmosphere outside the stadium with fans lined up on either side of the Queens road (including the median) to welcome the team buses. Good mix of red and yellow, and 7s and 18s out there, accompanied by a lot of banter, mostly healthy. There are also some cheekily customised white t-shirts with black vertical stripes and a reference to 2016 and 2017 seasons, for the occasion. Proper derby atmosphere that belies the fact that this match technically matters only to one team," he adds.

18:30 Local Time, 13:00 GMT: These two teams find themselves in unfamiliar territory at this stage of the season. Generally it has been Chennai Super Kings at the top half of the table looking to seal a top two spot while Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the bottom half with their calculators out trying to figure out a way to sneak into the playoffs. The places have reversed this season - Royal Challengers Bengaluru are at third while Chennai Super Kings are last and eliminated from the playoff race. The Super Kings are a champion team and being last would be hurting them, they would be playing for pride in these last four games but more importantly recognise the players who will help this team revive next year. The Royal Challengers are on a three match winning streak and have also broken their home jinx, they would want to keep up with the momentum as the teams above them won their respective games in the last two days. Hello and welcome..

Preview by Kaushik Rangarajan

A year is a long time in the IPL. This time last season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru were scraping the bottom, three wins from 10 and clinging to miracle maths. When asked if focus had shifted to 2025, Mo Bobat, their Director of Cricket, said it wouldn't until the numbers ruled them out. RCB then pulled off one of the league's great turnarounds and ironically, their final push into the playoffs came at Chennai Super Kings' expense.

In 2025, the narrative has changed. RCB, once synonymous with chaos, are a team of clarity, control and well-defined roles. They've spent most of their long break before the run-in admiring the view from the top of the table. In the same time, CSK were knocked out of playoffs contention, undone by a campaign that has been a blur of chopped combinations, creaking form, injuries and mismatched intent. Not even the maths can save them this time.

But it's not just the standings that have flipped, it's the identities too. RCB have power in their batting ranks, a working bowling formula, an unflappable captain and also a home win set up by a spin choke. They've even revived a player cast out as a misfit - Devdutt Padikkal - a trait their opponents once made an art form. Meanwhile, CSK, long the league's gold standard for stability, have chopped and changed more than anyone, chasing rhythm that never arrived. It's a strange reversal: CSK are sounding like old RCB by referencing 'next season' while RCB are behaving like high-functioning CSK teams of yore.

Saturday, then, feels like a push for something greater. RCB, composed and climbing, are now chasing a top-two finish, a shorter road to the elusive trophy. Doing the league double over their neighbours, something they've never achieved, and going up to 16 points would be a firm first step on that path. CSK arrive as the shadow of their old selves, but even shadows stretch long under the right light. Dewald Brevis, Ayush Mhatre and the next wave bring flickers of tomorrow. At a ground where fortunes flip and identities blur, this could still be a statement night beyond the Kohli-Dhoni narratives. For RCB, the journey is suddenly about finishing like old CSK. And for CSK, perhaps it begins with learning how to start again.

When: Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Chennai Super Kings, Match 52, IPL 2025, May 3, 19:30 IST

Where: M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

What to expect: There's a forecast for light rain, but it's only likely to briefly interrupt proceedings. That, if anything, gives teams more reason to chase. RCB did defend a total the last time around, but in all fairness, Rajasthan Royals should have chased down that score of 205.


Head to head: RCB 12-21 CSK. The history is heavily skewed in favour of CSK but RCB have won the last two encounters, including a thrilling clash at this venue 12 months ago

Team News:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Injuries/Availability: Phil Salt missed the Delhi game with a fever. Padikkal said Salt was in touch with the medical team and hoped to have him "back soon," but it's unclear if Saturday will come too soon. RCB's optional training session on match eve was heavily interrupted by rain, though Jacob Bethell managed a brief session facing under-armed balls from a member of the support staff between the downpours.

Tactics & Matchups:

CSK average the least (14.5) and have lost the most wickets to short balls (12) in the PowerPlay this season. This is Josh Hazlewood's natural length and one that has worked very well at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. RCB's quicks took 3 for 12 from 19 short-pitched deliveries in the reverse fixture at Chepauk.

Probable XII: Phil Salt/Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma

Chennai Super Kings

Injuries/Availability: No injury concerns apart from those that have already been ruled out of the tournament.

Tactics & Matchups:

RCB's spinners have been a key barometer of success, taking 18 wickets at 8.06 economy in wins, just one wicket at 9.26 in losses. Rajasthan Royals learned the hard way last week by showing too little intent against Krunal and Suyash. CSK will want to avoid the same trap. The addition of Brevis lends muscle to the middle, and three left-handers - Dube, Curran, and Jadeja - offer match-up value. But their spin strike rates this season of 101.33, 114.47 and 115.38 respectively hint at a lack of intent or fluency that RCB's tweakers could again exploit.

Probable XI: Shaik Rasheed, Ayush Mhatre, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Deepak Hooda, MS Dhoni (c&wk), Matheesha Pathirana, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj

Did you know?

- MS Dhoni averages 81.5 and has a strike-rate of 181.11 from 13 IPL games at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium

- Jitesh Sharma is one of only five Indian batters to have a 150-plus strike-rate with a cut-off of 100 T20 innings (Suryakumar Yadav, Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Abhishek Sharma are the others

- Since 2024, there have been only four 200+ scores in Bengaluru, two of them came in that 287-262 game between RCB and SRH.

What they said:

"The last couple of years, I didn't have too much preparation leading into IPLs and that probably had an effect on my batting as well. So it's good that this year, I got that opportunity and really worked on it. Yeah, it does help when you have some clarity on what your role is. But at the same time, you have to go out and execute that. And for that, there's a lot of hard work that goes in." - Devdutt Padikkal

"I think it's just the way we've played in general. We've made too many mistakes with bat and ball and in the field for that matter. So it doesn't matter if we're playing at Chepauk or away, I still think the results probably would have gone that way." - Michael Hussey

Squads:

Chennai Super Kings Squad: Shaik Rasheed, Ayush Mhatre, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Deepak Hooda, MS Dhoni(w/c), Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana, Anshul Kamboj, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Jamie Overton, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tripathi, Shreyas Gopal, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, Andre Siddarth C, Vansh Bedi

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Squad: Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Devdutt Padikkal, Liam Livingstone, Rasikh Dar Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Swapnil Singh, Lungi Ngidi, Philip Salt, Nuwan Thushara, Mohit Rathee, Swastik Chikara, Abhinandan Singh