IPL 2025: Is defending totals the ultimate victory mantra by RCB?

Royal Challengers Bengaluru will seek to improve their overall record against fivetime champions Chennai Super Kings when they take on the Men in Yellow at Chepauk Stadium on FridaySo far in their 33 meetings so far CSK have dominated RCB with 21 wins while RCB have managed just 11 victories One match ended with no result RCBs only win at Chepauk Stadium came way back in the inaugural IPL season in 2008In their last match RCB sent CSK packing out of the competition based on netrun rate and secured the playoffs spot after winning six matches on the bounce after winning just one of the first eight matchesInterestingly RCBs success against CSK has largely come while defending totals Out of their 11 wins six have been secured while defending and five while chasing In contrast nine of their losses have come while chasing totals Notably RCBs last four wins against CSK from 2019 onwards have all come while defending totalsMeanwhile CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad has won the toss and opted to field firstBoth teams have made one change each in their playing XI for this match The fivetime champions brought in Matheesha Pathirana in place of Nathan Ellis Rajat Patidarled side brought in Bhuvneshwar Kumar in place of Rasikh SalamWe are going to bowl first I think it will play slightly better than the last game So far there hasnt been any dew we dont know when the dew will arrive and it is not in our control There are areas we were sitting behind in the field and would like to be more aggressive batting wise we can be more clinical We have just got one change Pathirana comes back for Ellis Gaikwad said after winning the tossPatidar said that if he had won the toss they would have opted to bowl first as wellWe had decided to bowl first It will not make much difference the surface looks hard we will try to put up a total and keep them under pressure The boys did well in the last game We have to be at our best in every game and we will try to do that today also The bowling unit after 13 overs the way they came back was amazing to see the intent shown by the batting side was good It is one of the biggest games in the league because of the fans it makes it fun and exciting One change Bhuvi comes in for Rasikh Rajat Patidar saidChennai Super Kings Playing XI Rachin Ravindra Ruturaj Gaikwadc Rahul Tripathi Deepak Hooda Sam Curran Ravindra Jadeja MS Dhoniw Ravichandran Ashwin Noor Ahmad Matheesha Pathirana Khaleel AhmedRoyal Challengers Bengaluru Playing XI Virat Kohli Philip Salt Devdutt Padikkal Rajat Patidarc Liam Livingstone Jitesh Sharmaw Tim David Krunal Pandya Bhuvneshwar Kumar Josh Hazlewood Yash DayalWill RCB be able to defend their way to victory against CSK Only time will tell