RCB's margins for error now minimal

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Bengaluru, April 25, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)

Last year's finalists faced off in the season's opening fixture in Hyderabad. Fifties from Moises Henriques and Yuvraj Singh helped Sunrisers post 207. That total was 35 runs too many for a Royal Challengers outfit sans Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

Sunrisers lead 6-4 and have won their last three games against Royal Challengers. That being said, the hosts lead 3-2 at the Chinnaswamy.

Royal Challengers are languishing at the bottom of the table after seven games, following their rout for 49 - the lowest total in IPL history - in their last game at Eden Gardens. Sixteen points was the magic number teams needed in IPL 2016 to qualify for the playoff stage and Royal Challengers would need to win six of their last seven matches to get there.

Sunrisers Hyderabad don't have as much to worry about. They were done in by an MS Dhoni special in their previous match - a last-ball finish - but seem to have their overseas four set in stone, especially after Kane Williamson has scored 110 in his first two games at a strike rate of nearly 170. Yuvraj Singh missed the last game due to illness, but should return to the XI at the Chinnaswamy. Ashish Nehra, who has a superlative record against Virat Kohli, may get a look in if Sunrisers pay attention to the numbers.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 Chris Gayle, 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Mandeep Singh, 5 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 6 Stuart Binny, 7 Pawan Negi, 8 Samuel Badree, 9 Tymal Mills, 10 S Aravind, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

Sunrisers Hyderabad 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Moises Henriques, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Deepak Hooda, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Siddarth Kaul/Ashish Nehra, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Bhuvneshwar Kumar