Indian Premier League

Big picture - The middle-overs man

The powerplay batting in IPL 2026 is must-see content. The death overs of any T20 is worth the watch. The middle can sometimes be inconsequential. So Rajat Patidar came along and changed everything.

He's got a new look this year with long flowing hair like the hero from Dhurandhar. For most people, that'd be enough. You wake up. You brush your teeth. You look in the mirror. You squint your eyes. And you pass for Ranveer Singh. Patidar wants to be that and play cricket on a level that's rarely been seen before.

This IPL, the average strike rate of a batter in overs seven to 16, when the bowling team has the advantage of five fielders on the boundary, is 151.39. Patidar's strike rate is 223.86. He is almost 1.5 times better than the game is letting people be. He has hit 18 sixes in the middle overs. All of his team-mates combined have hit 17.

Seeing Patidar take on Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav - two of the country's best spinners and recently crowned world champions - in this form is the kind of thing that makes the IPL special.

Form guide

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: WWLW (last four completed matches, most recent first)

Delhi Capitals: LLWW

Key question

Team news: DC have decisions to make

RCB thumped LSG with 29 balls and five wickets to spare in their last game with their best XII and they will likely keep the same team if all 12 are fit.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (probable): 1 Phil Salt, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Rasikh Salam, 12 Suyash Sharma

Delhi Capitals once again have a choice to make between Nitish Rana at No. 3 and Ashutosh Sharma down the order. They may also be weighing the pros and cons of playing Auqib Nabi over Vipraj Nigam

Delhi Capitals (probable): 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 KL Rahul (wk), 3 Nitish Rana/Ashutosh Sharma, 4 Sameer Rizvi, 5 Axar Patel, 6 David Miller, 7 Tristan Stubbs, 8 Vipraj Nigam/Auqib Nabi, 9 Lungi Ngidi, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 T Natarajan, 12 Mukesh Kumar

In the spotlight: KL Rahul and Jitesh Sharma

Last year against RCB in Bengaluru, KL Rahul made 93 not out, won the game and signed off saying the Chinnaswamy was his turf. He averages 71.1 and strikes at 144 against the team representing his home state. There is just one small problem. Since IPL 2025, he's been dismissed twice in nine innings to legspin. A strike rate of 101 suggests these aren't errors that come from taking on the bowler. RCB could try matching Suyash Sharma up with him, preferably when Rahul is still early in his innings - 75% of his dismissals this year have come before he's faced 10 balls.

With RCB's top four doing so well, Jitesh Sharma has hardly had a hit. The wicketkeeper batter has faced only 27 balls this season. He's one of the most outspoken cricketers out there which means there's always a spotlight on him. He is also the team's failsafe, ensuring a later point of entry for Tim David and Romario Shepherd so that they can just come in and go bang.

Stats: Kohli on 299 IPL sixes

Virat Kohli is one short of joining the 300 sixes club in the IPL, which currently includes only Chris Gayle (357) and Rohit Sharma (310). There's a high chance he knocks the record off early because his first-10 balls strike rate in IPL 2026 is 174.

DC have the second-most miserly pace attack this year, with an economy rate of 8.97. They'll face a challenge maintaining those numbers against RCB who have been the season's second-best pace-hitting team with a strike rate of 177.61

Kuldeep warmed the bench for the majority of India's T20 World Cup campaign. He's played all four games for DC but has bowled his full quota only twice. His economy rate of 9.8 is comfortably his highest for a season though this one is still in its infancy. He'll want to bounce back into form quickly

Spinners have gone at 9.09 runs per over at M Chinnaswamy stadium since IPL 2024, which strangely enough is mid-table. The small boundaries tend to invoke fear among slow bowlers but they've actually had it worse at many other places. Hyderabad (10.12), for example, or Delhi (9.55), or Ahmedabad (9.38).

Axar has exactly the same number of runs as wickets this IPL - 3.

Pitch and conditions

The previous game in Bengaluru, on the back of several hot days in the city, was a low-scoring affair with the ball holding up on a worn and dry pitch. Normally, it's runs, runs and more runs there.

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