The bottom-two teams in the IPL will collide when Delhi Daredevils host the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on Saturday (18:30).

The hopes of making the playoffs are paper-thin for both sides, more so for the Daredevils than Bangalore. Both Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers and Shreyas Iyer’s Daredevils have won only three matches so far, although the former have played a game less than their opponents on Saturday.

As such, victory will be a must for both teams, with a loss very likely spelling the end for their respective campaigns.

RCB’S BATSMEN IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The much famed batting line-up of the Royal Challengers has come up a cropper in the side’s last two outings. First, they were restricted to 127-9 in their heavy loss to Kolkata Knight Riders before they failed to chase down a target of 147 runs in their defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The side has been dependent on the contributions of AB de Villiers and Kohli when it comes to the bat and both superstars have failed to really fire in the last two defeats. The outfit will need their stalwarts to stand up to the occasion come Saturday if they are to keep their playoff hopes alive.

PLAYERS IN FOCUS

Tim Southee has helped Royal Challengers Bangalore somewhat overcome their death-overs jitters since his introduction to the playing XI. The Kiwi pacer was among the wickets in the loss against Sunrises Hyderabad, finishing with impressive figures of 3-30. With Umesh Yadav blowing hot and cold, Southee will need to shoulder the greater burden in the pace department.

For Delhi, Rishabh Pant is having the tournament of his life and his unbeaten 128 off 63 balls in the defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad was the latest in a string of impressive performances from the youngster. The 20-year-old made the likes of Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar look ordinary during his whirlwind innings and he will back himself to shine against the visitors at the same venue.

LIKLEY LINE-UPS

Delhi Daredevils: Prithvi Shaw, Jason Roy, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Hershal Patel, Glenn Maxwell, Vijay Shankar, Liam Plunkett, Shahbaz Nadeem, Amit Mishra, Trent Boult

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Parthiv Patel (wk), Manan Vohra, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal