RCB vs CSK, 68th Match at Bengaluru, IPL, May 18 2024 - Live Cricket Score

A reminder that you can also follow this high-profile and crucial game in Hindi right here.

There's a thin drizzle as I type

Shardul

Hello again, peeps. We're all set. The rain has stayed away. May it remain that way for we all want a cracker. Huge cheers as Kohli & Faf walk out to open the batting. Tushar Deshpande to bowl the first over. A slip in place for him. Kohli to face the first ball.

7.20pm Shashank is back to see you through the first innings. Let him know whom you are cheering for tonight, even if it's for some rain!

Aashish Pudasai: "Come on RCB. It is do or die game. Supporting you from Nepal"

CSK: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Daryl Mitchell, 4 Ajinkya Rahane, 5 Mitchell Santner, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Tushar Deshpande, 11 Simarjeet Singh. Impact Subs: Dube, Rizvi, Solanki, Rasheed and Choudhary

RCB: 1 Faf du Plessis, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Glenn Maxwell, 4 Rajat Patidar, 5 Cameron Green, 6 Dinesh Karthik, 7 Mahipal Lomror, 8 Yash Dayal, 9 Karn Sharma, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Lockie Ferguson. Impact Subs: Swapnil, Rawat, Prabhudesai, Vyshak and Himanshu

7pm Like most of us, Ravi Shastri is right on the top of his voice at the toss. CSK win the toss and bowl. The thrill in the crowd is unbelievable, even as Gaikwad somehow manages to be audible and say the cloud cover is one of the reasons for his decision. CSK play Santner in place of Moeen. Faf du Plessis would have bowled first too. Remember, RCB have won five in a row to leave themselves with a fair chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

Amit: "Please start early as it is not raining" --- Is someone listening or reading?!

Somesh: "@Himanshu- who are you supporting today. Don't say rain please" --- Okay, I'm all for some exciting cricket then!

Anil: "Himanshu, please answer the MOST important question today: by what margin must RCB win today to push CSK aside? CSK has higher NRR" --- It is S Rajesh, and not me, who has all the answers

Meanwhile, Ashish says all signs lead to Richard Gleeson coming back. He has been practising for a while.

Shekhar: "Considering there's a mega auction coming up, the sensible thing to do for Dhoni would be to retire. But hey, I thought the same 3 years back, so, huh, whatever" --- Why do we even think when it comes to Dhoni?!

Ashish Pant from Chinnaswamy: Dhoni just walked out to a wild roar from the crowd, but he's walked in very late. Probably the last man to walk out of the CSK unit. The suspense builds because Avanish Aravalley has been practising for the last 10-15 minutes to almost all the fast bowlers. Dhoni struts out and immediately walks over to his teammates who are doing some football drills. Chants of Dhoni, Dhoni rings around the stadium.

Hello, everyone. Who hasn't lost patience yet for the action to begin?

Himanshu Agrawal is ready to step in with the controls for a short while. I'll see you very soon.

6.35pm Is this the sternest test yet for Ruturaj Gaikwad? His first year as CSK captain has fetched mixed results so far. Not once have CSK won more than two games in a row this season, not once have they lost more than two on the bounce. Now it all boils down to one pressure game.

There's so much chatter around this potentially being MS Dhoni's final IPL game. Well, never say never. The one thing with Dhoni is you don't quite know what surprise he'll pull off when. Even Mike Hussey isn't sure.

6.20pm Halfway through the season, almost no one gave RCB a chance of making the playoffs. But they are still here, having strung together a run of wins in what was effectively five knockout games. Hopefully, the weather in Bengaluru will allow them their shot at completing the greatest comeback in IPL history.

Abhilash: "I think you'll copy and paste these two lines much often - 1. Covers are coming off 2. Covers are back on." -- Hahaha, yeah entirely possible it could be that kinda evening.

6.05pm Covers are coming off.

Ravim says: "It would have been better had it rained till now and cleared the hovering clouds. No rain till now is not a good news. It may mean rain may hit us during match "

5.56pm Covers are coming on. I presume this is just a precautionary measure because there is some rain forecast around now.

5.55pm One of the big reasons for RCB's turnaround has been Rajat Patidar. Colleague S Sudarshanan caught up with him a couple of days to go to chat about his batting, season, spin-hitting and a bit more.

Walt: "Bright, early start to the commentary! Perhaps the IPL could be un-cricket like and start early, to take advantage of the weather...? " -- Spot on, Walt. Cricket should be less rigid.

S Rajesh, our stats editor, breaks down the simple equation for RCB & CSK.

5.40pm So far, we had only heard murmurs of people being approached to become India's next head coach. We can confirm one candidate for sure now. Any guesses?

BTW, last time RCB-CSK played on May 18, this happened. Check it out.

5.30pm Good evening, folks. Who would've imagined even probably two weeks ago that this fixture - RCB v CSK - would be a knockout (well, almost).

"Oh, man. Absolute chaos outside the Chinnaswamy," belts Ashish Pant, our reporter at the venue tonight. Presume he's referring to the traffic. Because we can confirm IT. IS. NOT. RAINING.

On that note, hello and welcome to our coverage of Match No. 68. Fondly, and in a banter-y sort of manner, referred to as the Cauvery derby. If you understand southern politics, you'd probably pick up the reference.

I'm Shashank Kishore, welcoming you all. Stay locked. I'll bring you just about anything and everything as it happens. Including who moved, who waved, who burped.....okay, that's me getting overly excited. I'll relax.