IPL 2019: Match 1, Chennai Super Kings vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, Match Prediction: Who will win today's match
The Indian Premier League is finally upon us as the Chennai Super Kings get ready to take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first match of the tournament at the M Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Last year's champions, the Chennai Super Kings, will hope to get off to the best possible start and defeat their rivals at their home stadium. Led by MS Dhoni, CSK will look to continue their fine run of form from last year.
On the other hand, the Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to turn things around after a couple of poor seasons. While they finished 6th on the table last time around, they had a disastrous campaign in 2017, which saw them finish at the bottom of the table.
With a few worthy additions to the squad this time around, they will hope to win their first ever title.
Here is how the match might pan out:
If RCB bat first:
The Royal Challengers Bangalore's strength is in their batting and if they get going, they can post a big total. The big question surrounds their opening combination and who they decide to pick. Most likely, it would be Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel opening the batting for RCB.
Lower down the order, there is AB de Villiers and Shimron Hetmyer, who can take the game away from the opposition. We can expect a 180+ score from the Bangalore based franchise in the first game.
If CSK bat first:
The defending champions have a well-balanced squad and will hope for the vast amount of experience they have in their squad to come in handy.
A few of their players have not been in great form of late but they seem to turn up every IPL. If they bat first, we can expect a 170+ score from them.
Who will win?
RCB's players seem to be in slightly better form at this stage and it looks like they will come out on top in the first encounter of this year's tournament.