Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, trapped in a spiral of defeats, will play for the prize of a berth in the IPL 2020 playoffs on Monday.

The winner, in fact, will qualify as the No.2 team from the group stage and hence will be guaranteed a couple of chances in the playoffs to make it to the final. The contest has been rightly dubbed as a virtual quarter final.

The match will be all about rediscovering confidence, something that both the teams have lost. It has been an extraordinary fall for Shreyas Iyer’s Capitals, who were mighty impressive for most of the tournament before losing four games on the trot.

Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers haven’t been much better, conceding three successive defeats after a string of dominating performances before that.

To an extent, the story of both the stumbles is quite strange and inexplicable. It is not that the teams have suddenly lost some of their key players to injuries, neither are there any known distractions, but still they have struggled immensely in their last few matches. Whichever team traces the problem faster and addresses it on Monday, will walk away with two points and a top-two finish.

Capitals’ batsmen have come a cropper of late and the bowling doesn’t look as potent as it was in the first half.

They have failed to find a stable opening combination, with both Prithvi Shaw and Ajikya Rahane being paired up with Shikhar Dhawan but neither yielded desired results. Dhawan, who was flying high with back-to-back hundreds, has managed 0, 0, 6 in the last three games.

Their middle order too has looked ordinary and the likes of Rishabh Pant, Shimron Hetmyer and Marcus Stoinis will have to pull up their socks.

For Royal Challengers, it appears one between Kohli and AB de Villiers will need to score big for them to have a good day on the field. Both the superstars have had a few quiet games and Monday will be a good time to get back among runs.

Both the captains, Kohli and Iyer, will have to keep the dew factor in mind while chalking out their plans.

Today’s match

Delhi Capitals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, Abu Dhabi (7.30pm IST)