Lucknow, May 27 (IANS) Royal Challengers Bengaluru stand-in skipper Jitesh Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl first against Lucknow Super Giants in Match 70 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.

RCB have made two changes in their playing XI even as regular skipper Rajat Patidar continues to start on the substitute bench and is likely to come in as Impact Sub. With Josh Hazlewood left out despite recovering from his injury, Liam Livingstone replaces Tim David, while Nuwan Thushara comes in for Lungi Ngidi.

LSG captain Rishabh Pant said they will continue to play “fearless cricket”. They too made two changes with Matthew Breetzke and Digvesh Rathi coming into the playing XI.

The onus is on Royal Challengers Bengaluru to win the match and finish in the top two positions, which will not only put them in Qualifier 1 but also open up a chance to fight for the title once again via the Eliminator match, in case of a setback.

Playing XIs:

Lucknow Super Giants: Rishabh Pant (wk, capt), Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Breetzke, Ayush Badoni, 6 Abdul Samad, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Digvesh Rathi, Avesh Khan, William O’Rourke

Impact Substitutes: Yuvraj Chaudhary, Arshin Kulkarni, Akash Singh, Prince Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarwal, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Nuwan Thushara, Suyash Sharma

Impact Substitutes: Tim Seifert, Swapnil Singh, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam and Manoj Bhandage

–IANS

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