The 36th match of the tournament between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). The match between them will start at 3:30 P.M. (IST).
In their previous encounter in this IPL, KKR’s ruthless batting crushed RCB by 7 wickets.
Teams Analysis:
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR):
One of the strongest sides in this season as they are 2nd in the points table with 8 points in 6 matches. Their batting and bowling both seem to be in balance but their batting has given more impact. They lost 2 till now.
Sunil Narine is playing this season more as a batter than bowler. Though he is contributing well in both the departments he has more significance in batting as he scored 276 runs which includes 1 century and 1 half-century. He is currently in the 5th place in the orange cap list. With the bowl he has 7 wickets to his name with a brilliant economy of 6.88. A perfect all-rounder for Knight Riders and he also likes to play against RCB as he carries great records as a batter and bowler both against them.
Phil Salt also provides a healthy run at the start with Narine. He has 201 runs to his name with two half-centuries. His strike rate is 151.13 till now. Skipper Shreyas Iyer has provided some couple of 30’s in this season but has not been able to score a 50+ knock yet. He has scored 140 runs till now with a slow strike rate 122.81.
The destructive batter Andre Russell has been seen in beast mode as his strike rate is 200 in this season and already scored a brilliant half-century against SRH in their first match. With the bowl he has 6 wickets in his pocket but the economy is on the higher side which is 10.55. Venkatesh Iyer after his half-century against RCB he was unable to provide runs with the bat and this match might make a comeback for him.
Pacers Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora both grabbed 7 wickets each. But both have an economy over 9, which they need to make it better. Vaibhav mostly proves wickets in the powerplay which gives early momentum to the team. Mitchell Starc after his brilliant performance against LSG where he took 3 wickets looked out of line and length as conceded 50 runs against RR in the last match. Till now his economy is 10.55 and has taken 5 wickets till now.
Probable playing 11 for the match:
Shreyas Iyer ©, Sunil Narine, Phil Salt (wk), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Harshit Rana, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy.
(Impact Player: Ramandeep Singh)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB):
This team’s bad fortunes continues as they are bottom in the points table with just one win in 7 matches and lost 6. Not only this, in the last match against SRH, the team conceded many runs and as a result Hyderabad posted the highest score in IPL. Their batting is better but their bowling is very poor till now in this season.
Virat Kohli is consistent with his form and always provides healthy runs to the team at the start. He is leading the runs-table with 361 runs which includes 1 century and 2 half-centuries. His strike rate is 147.35. Skipper Faf du Plessis also looked in great touch after hitting 2 back to back half-centuries. He has 232 runs to his name till now.
Will Jacks in two matches just managed 8 & 7 runs. He is well known for his destructive powers but this power hitting is missing till now. Glenn Maxwell might miss this match too as he wants to get mentally and physically fit after his string of low scores in this season. Rajat Patidar was also unable to get many runs with the bat as he just got 106 runs till now.
Dinesh Karthik has been in phenomenal form as he gets 226 runs till now with a strike rate of 205.45. His average is also lifting to 75.33 and has scored two 50+ scores till now. In the last match he hit the longest six (108m) against SRH in this season and contributed blasting 83 runs in 35 balls.
Their bowling is the weakest point which mostly took them out of the match. They were highly expensive throughout the 20 overs especially in the powerplay and death overs. The best economy for them till now has Glenn Maxwell who has 8.44 economy. From this it can be easily predicted that the regular bowlers will have higher than this.
Yash Dayal has been the most successful bowler in the team in terms of wickets as he got 5 till now with an economy of over 9.09. Rest all of them have been out of line and length in this season till now.
Probably playing 11 for the Match:
Faf du Plessis ©, Virat Kohli, Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Saurav Chauhan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mahipal Lomror, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Reece Topley, Yash Dayal, Mayank Dagar.
(Impact Player: Lockie Ferguson)
Head to Head (KKR vs RCB):
They played 33 matches against each other. One match ended in a no result.
| KKR | RCB | |
| won | 19 | 14 |
| Highest score | 222 | 213 |
| Lowest score | 84 | 49 |
Pitch Report:
The match will be played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. This pitch mostly favours the batters as the ball came easily into the bats. The three matches that were played saw easy runs scored and again a high voltage match is expected as both the team has power hitters. Chasing might be a good option after winning the toss.
Weather Report:
A high voltage hot day is expected as the temperature will touch 41 degree celsius during the daytime and this match will be played in the afternoon, therefore players will have to face extreme heat. It will go down to 29 degree celsius at night and the humidity will be approx 40%.
Best 11 for the Match:
Dinesh Karthik, Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Will Jacks, Mitchell Starc, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy.