The 12th edition of much awaited and biggest T20 league Indian Premier League will begin at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai tonight. In the opening match, Chennai Super Kings will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Chennai Super Kings are also the defending champions and they will look to start their IPL 12 campaign on winning note. They have a solid batting line up of experienced players like Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, and Ambati Rayudu. But their bowling attack is a bit inexperienced and the absence of Lungi Ngidi will hurt them further. Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja have to do a lot of work this season.
On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore who had back to back disappointing seasons will be keen to put their past performances behind them and start afresh with a win. Once again their batting will rely mainly on the duo of captain Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. In the middle and lower order Shimron Hetmyer, Moeen Ali and Shivam Dube will take responsibility and if they come good then Bangalore will have a good season this time.
Probable XI -
CSK - Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Karn Sharma, and Shardul Thakur
RCB - Parthiv Patel (wk), Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Shimron Hetmyer, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Washington Sunder, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Tim Southee, and Mohammad Siraj
All the major stats and facts ahead of the first match between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai :
Head to Head in IPL -
| Venue | Mat | Won by CSK | Won by RCB | NR |
| Chennai | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| Bangalore | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Neutral | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Overall | 22 | 14 | 7 | 1 |
6 - Chennai Super Kings have won each of their six matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore and their last loss against them came at Ranchi in May 2014.
Chennai is also on a six-match winning streak against Bangalore in Chennai. Their only loss in Chennai came in the first season in 2008.
14 - Suresh Raina needs 14 runs to complete 5000 runs for Chennai Super Kings in T20 cricket.
43.09 - Dwayne Bravo's IPL bowling average against Royal Challengers Bangalore - the worst for him against a team in IPL. He has taken only 11 wickets in 18 IPL matches against them.
47 - AB de Villiers needs 47 runs to reach 4000 runs in IPL. He will become the second non-Indian player after David Warner to achieve this feat.
95 - Virat Kohli needs 95 more runs to become the second Indian batsman after Suresh Raina to score 8000 runs in T20 cricket.
732 - Virat Kohli has scored 732 runs at an average of 40.67 in 22 IPL matches against Chennai Super Kings - the most runs by any player against Chennai Super Kings in IPL.
5000 - Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli need 15 and 52 runs respectively to complete 5000 runs in IPL. Whoever completes first, will become the first ever batsman to achieve the milestone of 5000 IPL runs.
