Image Credit- Getty
For fans of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, there was good news as Saturday morning brought bright skies and sunshine to most of Bengaluru.
The match between RCB and Chennai Super Kings, which will determine who advances to the IPL 2024 playoffs alongside Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, and Sunrisers Hyderabad, is seriously threatened by rain.
There was no overnight rain and the sun was out in central Bengaluru, the location of Chinnaswamy Stadium. The evening’s outlook remains dismal, with a 60% probability of rain around the 7.30 p.m. start time of the match. A “generally cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers” is what the Indian Meteorological Department is expecting.
Match eve was predicted to be gloomy as well, with thunderstorms and showers predicted throughout the evening. Even though it continued to be gloomy, rain never reached central Bengaluru, and RCB and CSK practiced uninterrupted for more than an hour. Following a period of unusually hot weather, the city has seen steady rains over the past few weeks. But for the past three days, most areas have stayed comparatively dry.
The Chinnaswamy Stadium is one of the few venues in India with a subsurface aeration system, which enables play to start 30 minutes after the rain ends. The stadium also boasts an efficient drainage system for when it does rain.
If RCB is a washout, their prospects of qualifying for the playoffs are over. They had lost seven of their first eight games, but they had a fantastic turnaround, winning their next five. As of right now, they have 12 points and a 0.387 net run rate, compared to 14 points and a 0.538 NRR for CSK. If RCB achieves a score of 200, they will advance to the playoffs provided they beat CSK’s NRR by 18 runs or reach the mark with approximately 11 balls remaining. That task will be more difficult in a shortened game.
“The good thing is that it is crystal clear what we need to do,” Malolan Rangarajan, RCB’s head of scouting, said on the eve of the game. “Doesn’t matter if it is a 20-over game or a five, six-over game. For us, it might be 3.1 or 3.4 [the number of overs in which RCB may have to chase the target in case of a five-over game] because there are other intricacies within that. We are not going to be going inside thinking we need to restrict 18 runs or 11 balls. We are going to go there, try to stay consistent with what we have done.”