Lucknow, May 7 (IANS) Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won the toss and elected to bowl against hosts Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 clash at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Thursday.

Rishabh Pant and Co. head into their upcoming clash under pressure after suffering six successive defeats in the tournament. Their latest setback came against the Mumbai Indians, where they went down by six wickets. With their playoff chances rapidly fading, Lucknow will be desperate to return to winning ways. The side has managed only two victories from nine matches so far and currently sits at the bottom of the points table with four points.

On the other hand, RCB also entered the fixture after a defeat, having lost to the Gujarat Titans by four wickets in their previous game. Despite that result, Bengaluru remain firmly placed in the top half of the standings, occupying second spot with six wins from nine outings. A victory against the struggling Lucknow side would further strengthen their push towards playoff qualification.

The two teams last faced each other on April 15 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the Rajat Patidar-led side registered a convincing five-wicket win. Historically, RCB have enjoyed the upper hand in this rivalry, winning five of the seven meetings between the two franchises in the IPL, while Lucknow have emerged victorious twice.

With the playoff race heating up, it’ll be interesting to see what new strategies both sides deploy to win this fixture.

Winning the toss, RCB captain Patidar said, “We will bowl first. It’s not as loud as Chinnaswamy, but it’s still loud. The surface looks good, and we’ll look to restrict them to a low score. The break was good; everyone is doing well, and we had some hard practice. We are playing with the same team.”

Meanwhile, LSG skipper Pant said, “A few changes in our team. Some injuries – Inglis and Mohsin Khan miss out. The only thing is to move with clarity. We know we’re a top team, but the main thing is clarity. We have a few changes in the batting order. Having a stable environment is needed, but we need to make changes at times. Looks like a 180-190 wicket, a better wicket than most of the other games.”

Playing XIs:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma

Impact substitutes: Rasikh Dar, Jordan Cox, Mangesh Yadav, Vicky Ostwal, Venkatesh Iyer

Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Arshin Kulkarni, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Akshat Raghuwanshi, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mohammed Shami, Prince Yadav

Impact substitutes: Mayank Yadav, Mukul Chowdhary, Abdul Samad, M Siddharth, Avesh Khan.

–IANS

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