Gujarat Lions had a good start in Indian Premier League making the playoffs in their very first season in 2016. GL finished at the top of the IPL points table in their first season. RCB finished 2nd in the league standings in 2016 IPL season and defeated GL in the qualifier 1 to make it to the final. The rivalry between the two sides brewed further during IPL 2017 edition.
The two sides faced each other for 5 times in two IPL editions – 2016 & 2017. Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to have an upper-hand with 3 wins over Gujarat Lions, while the Lions won 2 games. RCB won 2 out of 3 games played in the IPL 2016, while both teams won one game each during the IPL 2017.
| RCB vs GL Overall | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Played | RCB | GL | No Result |
| 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
RCB have won 3 games and GL have won 2 games in the last 5 meetings. RCB have a better record at home as they have won 2 games and lost 1 out of 3 games they have played at their home. Meanwhile, at GL’s home, both sides have won one game each in match prediction.
The reverse leg was played at the RCB home, M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Once again, the Lions won the toss and elected to bowl first. This time, the Gujarat bowling looked in an excellent form as they accounted for the first three wickets inside first five overs only. Even from there, they didn’t let any RCB batsman settle down and sent the half-side back to the hut inside first 10 overs. Only Kedar Jadhav (31 runs off 18 deliveries) and Pawan Negi (32 runs off 19 deliveries) could make some contributions to take RCB to 134/10 in 20 overs. Australian pacer Andrew Tye returned with the brilliant figures of 3/12 in his 4 overs. Chasing the target, the Lions lost both openers, Ishan Kishan and Brendon McCullum, early in the chase. However, Suresh Raina (34 runs unbeaten) and Aaron Finch (72 runs off 34 deliveries) added 92 runs for the 3rd wicket to bat RCB out of the game. Raina alongside Ravindra Jadeja completed a dominating 7 wickets victory over RCB with 6.1 overs remaining. Only Samuel Badree could impress with the ball and spinner took two wickets for RCB. Andrew Tye was awarded man of the match.
| LAST 5 ENCOUNTERS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Played | RCB | GL | No Result |
| 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
Virat Kohli is the leading run-scorer for RCB against GL with 283 runs in 5 innings at an average of more than 70. He is followed by AB de Villiers with 233 runs against the Lions from Gujarat at a strike rate of 184.92. While Chris Gayle has scored 100 runs in 4 innings against Gujarat Lions, Kedar Jadhav has scored 69 runs in 2 innings for RCB against GL.
Aaron Finch is leading the batting charts for GL against RCB. The Australian batsman has scored a total of 132 runs in 4 innings at a strike rate of 141.94 against the Royals from Bangalore. Brendon McCullum follows him closely with 129 runs in 5 innings for GL against RCB. Dwayne Smith has scored 133 runs in 4 innings against RCB at a strike rate of 156.94. Meanwhile, Suresh Raina has also scored 86 runs in 4 innings for GL against RCB.
| TOP 4 BATSMEN (among current players) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | |||||||||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Not out | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s | |||||||
| 1 | V Kohli | 5 | 1 | 283 | 70.75 | 154.64 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| 2 | AB de Villiers | 4 | 2 | 233 | 116.50 | 184.92 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 3 | CH Gayle | 4 | 0 | 100 | 25.00 | 135.14 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| 4 | KM Jadhav | 2 | 1 | 69 | 69.00 | 202.94 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Gujarat Lions | |||||||||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Not out | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s | |||||||
| 1 | AJ Finch | 4 | 0 | 132 | 33.00 | 141.94 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| 2 | BB McCullum | 5 | 0 | 129 | 25.80 | 141.76 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| 3 | DR Smith | 4 | 0 | 113 | 28.25 | 156.94 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| 4 | SK Raina | 4 | 1 | 86 | 28.67 | 121.13 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
The leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has picked 8 wickets for RCB against GL in 5 innings. The English pacer Chris Jordan is next in the list with 6 wickets in just 2 innings for RCB against GL. Shane Watson has also bagged 5 wickets in 4 innings against GL for RCB. Meanwhile, Sachin Baby also finds himself in the list with 2 wickets in the single innings against the lions from Gujarat.
Dhawal Kulkarni is the top bowler for Gujarat Lions against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The pacer has picked up 7 wickets in 4 innings against the Red Army for the Lions. He is followed by Ravindra Jadeja with 4 wickets in 5 innings for the Lions against RCB. Meanwhile, Andrew Tye has picked up 3 wickets in 2 games for GL against RCB and Praveen Kumar has also bagged 2 wickets for GL against the Bangalore-based franchise.
| TOP 4 BOWLERS (among current players) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | |||||||||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Wickets | 5w | 4w | ||||||||||
| 1 | YS Chahal | 5 | 8 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 2 | CJ Jordan | 2 | 6 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 3 | SR Watson | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 4 | P Negi | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Gujarat Lions | |||||||||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Wickets | 5w | 4w | ||||||||||
| 1 | DS Kulkarni | 4 | 7 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 2 | RA Jadeja | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 3 | AJ Tye | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Basil Thampi | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||