Till a few seasons back, a match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the Chennai Super Kings was hot property, with two of the nation’s biggest cricket stars lining up against each other. Not anymore.

RCB’s Virat Kohli is still in command of his game, lighting up the IPL sky with the sparkle of his craft. But the same cannot be said about CSK’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who retains his mind-boggling fan base but is no longer the player whose presence on the field infused magic in the atmosphere.

So viewing Saturday’s RCB vs CSK match in Bengaluru as a Kohli-Dhoni duel is perhaps not right.

Even team-wise, some of the competitive edge of the match has been lost with CSK already out of the playoffs race. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing to gain or lose from the game.

RCB have had a great season so far, with seven wins from 10 games, and are eyeing two more wins from their remaining four matches to be absolutely sure of a playoffs berth. They would not like a delay in that as things often get turned upside down in the closing stages of IPL’s group league. So they will be desperate for two points from Saturday.

CSK, too, are trying not to lose interest in their remaining games and want to finish their faltering IPL campaign on a high.

Mike Hussey, the Chennai team’s batting coach, spelt out the side’s target and approach. “We’re certainly not going to panic and throw everything out just because it hasn’t gone well this year, but we definitely need to tidy up on a few areas,” Hussey said on Friday.

Hussey, however, tried to sell optimism.

“I know we’re sitting at the bottom of the table and we haven’t won many games. But I actually don’t think we’re too far away. We have got some match-winning players in that line-up. We can definitely compete with any team in the competition... There’s fine margins in this competition,” the Australian said.

RCB have been taking care of those “fine margins” quite smartly this time.