Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Rajasthan Royals, 15th Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Build-up:

Rajasthan Royals, who will be buoyed by the news of Ben Stokes who is set to arrive in the UAE, will be hoping to welcome him with a victory. They are up against Royal Challengers Bangalore, whose death bowling problems continue to haunt them.

Despite a positive start to the season, head coach Simon Katich wants his team to become more ruthless in closing out games. That, to RCB, can mean only one thing: improve death bowling. In the eight overs bowled at the death (16-20) against Punjab and Mumbai, they conceded 163 runs at an economy of 20.4 - staggering even by RCB standards. And they haven't played yet at Sharjah.

The concern for the Royals, who also have two wins from three, is with their batting order and how best to use shrug off the Sharjah hangover. When the cream at the top is brushed away, Rajasthan have found that their middle can be quite squishy. While Stokes' arrival would sort out their middle-order issues, he's still a week away from joining the team - needing to quarantine for six days upon arrival. This means the Royals have at least two games where they have to manage without Stokes. How will they work it out?

Also read:

RCB seek new dawn to death-bowling woes in season's first afternoon game, writes Kaushik Rangarajan as he previews the match. Kaushik also analyses how Yuzvendra Chahal has learnt to use his googlies better and is reaping the rewards for it.

Meanwhile, Jos Buttler, talks about the positives of the absence of crowd. Buttler was one among the first bunch of cricketers who experienced playing cricket in a bio-bubble when England welcomed West Indies for the three-match Test series. Since then, the Rajasthan Royals wicketkeeper-batsman has also had the experience of playing the two other formats in a similar ecosystem before making his way to the UAE for the IPL. Here's what he had to say.