Team Chahal & Team Kohli lock horns in RCB intra-squad match, de Villiers scores highest

With just two days to go for the IPL 2020, Royal Challengers Bangalore played their first intra-squad match in Dubai with Yuzvendra Chahal leading one side against Virat Kohli's squad. While detailed score and full teams were not revealed, it known that Chahal's team included AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Umesh Yadav, and Shahbaz Nadeem. On the other hand, Kohli's team comprised of Washington Sundar, Dale Steyn, Mohammed Siraj, and Parthiv Patel. The intra-squad match resulted in Team Chahal's victory with de Villiers scoring 43 off 33 balls - the highest for his team. 

"I have always won as a captain. My record is 100%. Whatever you practice, you can put it to use because it is just a practice game," said skipper Chahal in the video shared by RCB.

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"We looked about matchups, wanted our bowlers to bowl to left and right-handers and look at some possibilities in terms of partnerships through the order. We wanted each team to have left-arm spinners, off-spinners, and leg-spinners and provide matchups," Mike Hesson, who was an umpire for the game, said. 

"It was a challenging surface and got out different skills. It certainly exposed some extra things we need to work on. Overall, the conditions were challenging," Hesson added. 

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Explaining the decision to make Chahal a captain, Hesson said that the franchise needs him to be a part of the leadership group. "When we gave Yuzi the news that he was going to be captain, his face lit up. He was pumped up. We wanted him as part of our leadership group. He brings a different perspective obviously, looks after the spin bowling group of ours. We just wanted him to think a little bit more about the game," Hesson stated. 

MI & CSK to clash in opener 

Defending champions Mumbai Indians will face MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings in the opening clash of the tournament on September 19 in Abu Dhabi. RCB will be facing Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first match of the tournament on September 21. Compared to the regular 8 pm IST start, the games will start half an hour earlier in the upcoming edition. The afternoon matches are set to begin at 3:30 PM IST while the evening games will commence at 7:30 PM IST. In all, 24 matches will be held in Dubai, 20 in Abu Dhabi and 12 in Sharjah, while the venues for playoffs will be announced later.

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RCB Full Squad

Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Gurkeerat Mann, Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Dale Steyn, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Chris Morris, Pavan Deshpande Parthiv Patel, Joshua Philippe, Shahbaz Ahamad

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