File photo – South Africa chinaman Tabraiz Shamsi was handed his IPL debut by Royal Challengers Bangalore © Caribbean Premier League
Rising Pune Supergiants captain MS Dhoni opted to bowl against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their first home game of the season. They made one change with Rajat Bhatia replacing Irfan Pathan.
Royal Challengers made two changes. Mandeep Singh got a game in place of Travis Head, who made 37 off 24 on IPL debut against Mumbai Indians. South Africa chinaman Tabraiz Shamsi made his IPL debut at the expense of fast bowler Varun Aaron. Shamsi had been named as a replacement player for legspinner Samuel Badree, who had been ruled out of the tournament because of a shoulder injury.
Virat Kohli, the Royal Challengers captain, who lost his fourth toss in a row, reckoned that dew may come in later in the night. He also felt that teams had become “smarter” while chasing in the IPL. Prior to this match, 14 of 15 games had been won by the chasing side.
Rising Pune Supergiants: 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Kevin Pietersen, 4 Steven Smith, 5 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 6 Thisara Perera, 7 Rajat Bhatia, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Ankit Sharma, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 M Ashwin
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Mandeep Singh, 6 Sarfaraz Khan, 7 Stuart Binny, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Kane Richardson, 10 Iqbal Abdullah, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo