One of the key highlights of Royal Challengers Bangalore's impressive form this season has been Virat Kohli and the management's attention to match-up details. It was seen in the game against Kolkata Knight Riders when Washington Sundar was held back, bowling just one over in the powerplay, for taking on two left-handers Nitish Rana and Eoin Morgan and both were confronted by the offie. It was also seen in the Rajasthan Royals game when Yuzvendra Chahal was introduced early in the innings to take down Sanju Samson and he did not disappoint the skipper but was reserved in the Chennai Super Kings tie to trouble their skipper MS Dhoni. And it was seen on Thursday evening as well, or so they might claim, only this time the data was miscalculated and the plans eventually "did not come off".

It was unlikely that RCB would rejig their batting order, especially after that KKR game, when the pair of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli stitched a 100-run partnership, courtesy an unbeaten 33-ball 73 from the South African. But it all boiled down to match-ups - leg- spinners, left-handers, and hence De Villiers at No.6.
From RCB's perspective, De Villiers has long struggled against leggies, with his average dropping to 35 and a strike rate of 133 against this variety. In IPL, he has been dismissed by leg-spinners 21 times at an average 26.3.

Moreover, RCB had recalled KXIP's strategy from their previous encounter, earlier this season when Murugan Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi attacked in tandem after the powerplay against leg-spin-susceptible batters Aaron Finch and De Villiers. And the pair had triumphed - Bishnoi dismissed Finch while Ashwin got the big one. The plan was the same for the Sharjah clash as well.