Form of Kohli and du Plessis will be a concern for RCB as they take on LSG. © BCCI
The overview

Just two days back, Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore became the second and third teams respectively to get to eight points on the standings. And their respective journeys in this IPL have been similar too. Both started with a loss, both registered a hat-trick of victories and then lost the subsequent game. Now, ahead of the clash at the DY Patil Stadium, both teams have the confidence of another victory to their names as they face off to end the symmetry that they've carried along so far.

RCB's primary concern will be the top order, with skipper Faf du Plessis and former captain Virat Kohli having managed only one fifty-plus score in the 12 innings between them. Du Plessis started off with an innings of 88 against Punjab Kings, which he scored at a strike rate of 154, while Kohli hit 41 not out off 29 in that game. Since then, du Plessis has only managed 66 runs in five innings, at under a run a ball. After RCB's opening game, Kohli's sequence reads: 12, 5, 48, 1, and 12, with an overall strike rate of 101.42 from these five games. While Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik have masked RCB's problem at the top, they won't mind some runs there. Meanwhile, RCB will be encouraged by the improved showing by Mohammed Siraj in the last game - an economy of 7.75 as well as two wickets - having previously gone for a lot of runs.

For LSG, KL Rahul leading from the front against MI with a ton would have pleased the management, with the three-figure score following a couple of low-scoring outings. Marcus Stoinis, having joined the team for their last two games, has looked promising, while Manish Pandey getting amongst the runs in the last game would also be a confidence booster for the team. But they will be slightly worried with their overseas paceman Dushmantha Chameera's tendency to leak runs. He has gone for 12 or more in an over in two games, and LSG will want him to tighten up.

When: Tuesday, April 19, at 19:30 IST

Where: DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai

What to expect: While teams have preferred to chase in evening games, the last two evening games here were won by teams batting first. RCB experienced that first hand when they went down to CSK while Gujarat Titans defeated Rajasthan Royals by 37 runs in the previous evening game played here. Both times, the team batting second was chasing a big total.

Team watch:

Lucknow Super Giants

Tactics & Matchups: While Dinesh Karthik has scored at a good rate against pace, with a strike rate of 248.33, he has not been as fluent against spin. His strike rate is 141.17 against slower bowlers, which dips to 75 against wrist spin, with the wicketkeeper batter having managed only 12 off 16. Rajasthan Royals held back an over from Yuzvendra Chahal while Delhi Capitals did the same with Kuldeep Yadav, whose final over was kept until the 20th. LSG could do the same with Ravi Bishnoi.

Probable XI: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Jason Holder, Dushmantha Chameera, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Tactics & Matchups: LSG have been the best team in terms of using spin in the middle overs. They have bowled as many as 37 overs of spin in this stage, more than any other team, have the best economy rate (6.08) among all teams while they have also picked the most wickets (10) using spin in the middle overs. However, RCB have Maxwell, who has scored 62 runs off 28 deliveries in his three matches so far and could be the key for the side to negate LSG's spin threat.

Probable XI: Faf du Plessis (c), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj

Did you know?

- KL Rahul, who has scored 501 runs against RCB, averages 83.50 against them. This is the highest average for a player against an opponent in the IPL (Min. 400 runs). Jos Buttler's average of 80 against MI is the next best.

- Between them, Rahul and Quinton de Kock have scored 863 runs against RCB, with one hundred and two fifties apiece.

- Harshal Patel, who has bowled nine overs at the death, is yet to pick up a wicket at this stage. He picked up 21 wickets at the death in the previous season.

What they said:

"I have a bigger goal. I have been working really, really hard. Sometimes people don't believe it, but my aim is to do something special for the country. And this is part of that journey and I'm doing everything I can to be part of that Indian team and this is one such step in that direction" - Dinesh Karthik at the post-match presentation after his match-winning effort against DC.