IPL 2021: Match 56, RCB vs DC Preview, Playing XI, Live Streaming Details & Updates

Welcome to a rare dead-rubber in the Indian Premier League as two qualified teams – Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore – go against each other. The top half of the table has, keeping aside unrealistic mathematical miracles, taken its shape and is least likely to change.

Virat Kohli’s RCB had an opportunity to surpass CSK and make one of the spots in the top-two their own, although a close four-run defeat in a game of fine margins against Sunrisers Hyderabad means those plans are nearly in the trash bin now.

This is RCB’s second qualification in a row, and for a team that has often been spoken about for what it is unable to achieve than what it does, the year 2021 might just be the perfect time to shift the narrative, not least because this is also earmarked as the final year for the face of the franchise at the helm – the countdown for Virat Kohli’s games left as RCB skipper has already begun.

For a player of his cricketing pedigree, you would say there is little left to achieve. But Kohli remains not the most successful captaincy-wise, with an ICC trophy and IPL title eluding him. An IPL trophy won’t be a bad feather to add in his already feather-filled hat.

To that end, he would feel the year 2021 is one of the better chances too, for this has been a campaign where RCB has managed to tick boxes they had been craving to tick for since long. Then whether it is finding solutions to their death bowling woes or breaking the mould of depending on specific individuals repeatedly to deliver. In the current campaign, contributions have come from all quarters and heading into the contest against the Capitals, there are not too many issues that would be bugging the team management.

That, however, does not mean that scope of improvement is nil. Kohli’s strike rate and conventional starts have been under scrutiny, ever so effective Mohammed Siraj has only a solitary scalp in the UAE leg, while RCB’s go-to since ages, AB de Villiers, has tallied just 69 in six innings in the same phase. Questions have also been around his batting position, as batting too low in the order has meant that much less time for him in the middle.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Capitals have been a stock that continues to trend upwards after plummeting to the abyss in 2018, when they finished last in the tally. Ever since then, they have just flown high, and the year 2021 has not been different, with Rishabh Pant’s men having assured the top spot in the tally after emerging victorious in a cat and mouse fight with second-placed CSK. For the first time in IPL history has any team effected a double over both MI and CSK, two teams with eight titles amongst them.

The Capitals came agonizingly close to their maiden glory in 2020 but faltered in the final. But come the IPL 2021 Playoffs, they look more settled than nearly all of their competitors, with issues only existing around the form of Prithvi Shaw, who has been unable to emulate the form from the previous leg, with his scores reading 11, 10, 6 and 18 in the UAE leg. DC would also want to regain the services of their premier all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, who continues to nurse a hamstring niggle.

But in a dominant campaign thus far, a couple of players flowing under the radar would not bring too many wrinkles on the head of Ricky Ponting and co.

Pitch and conditions

After a string of encounters that witnessed scores in excess of 160, the first innings score in Dubai in the last three matches reads as follows: 115/8, 136/5 and 134/6. While all three targets were chased successfully, the former two went into the final over. However, PBSK chased down against CSK’s 134 in merely 13 overs courtesy of a KL Rahul blinder on a fresh track. Expect another hot evening with a balanced track in the offing. In a first, two IPL matches will be played concurrently.

Playing combinations for RCB vs DC

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB are likely to retain the same XI that lost to SRH.

Predicted XI: Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Srikar Bharat (wk), Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Daniel Christian, Shahbaz Ahmed, George Garton, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj

Delhi Capitals 

Marcus Stoinis continues to sit out due to a hamstring niggle. DC handed Ripal Patel his debut cap against CSK. He is likely to hold his spot.

Predicted XI: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Ripal Patel, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Avesh Khan, Anrich Nortje

RCB vs DC Head-to-Head

Overall

Played – 26 | Royal Challengers Bangalore – 15 | Delhi Capitals – 10 | N/R – 1

RCB vs DC Broadcast Details

Match Timings – 7:30 PM IST

TV – Star Sports Network

Live Streaming – Disney+Hotstar