Two sides that often never fail to entertain in their own quirky way, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders will clash with each other in Chennai on double-header day. While RCB will be eager to make it 3/3, the Knight Riders will be keen to put behind the forgettable showing vs MI.
From Brendon McCullum’s 158 to Sunil Narine’s fastest fifty to 49 all-out to Mohammed Siraj’s dream spell, Kolkata vs Bangalore is a rivalry that has historically been stuffed with gold-standard individual performances. Historically KKR have had the wood over RCB, but things are a bit different this time around. RCB currently look the most threatening they have in four years, while Kolkata, after a dominant win vs SRH, look like they have a lot of tinkering to do before they could be considered a title challenger.
Royal Challengers Bangalore - W W
Not many gave RCB a chance after a trademark questionable auction, but the Reds have thus far been the best team in the competition. On matchday 1 they rather convincingly outclassed a rusty Mumbai Indians side while earlier this week, they showed incredible mettle to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against the Sunrisers. Historically RCB have been a ‘momentum team’, so they would undoubtedly look to keep their winning run going, come Sunday.
Kolkata Knight Riders - L W
After demolishing SRH in their first encounter, KKR were near-perfect versus MI for 35 overs, but then pulled off the biggest choke-job in modern IPL history. Needing 31 off 31 with 7 wickets in hand, Eoin Morgan’s men lost the plot and incredibly went on to lose the MI encounter by 10 runs, scoring just 20 off their final 5 overs. Their bowling unit looks settled, but the feeble and unreliable batting will still be a concern for the Knights, heading into Sunday’s all-important clash.
Total - 26
Kolkata Knight Riders - 14
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 12
No Result - 0
If there is one game KKR would love to erase from their history, their IPL 2020 clash versus RCB in Abu Dhabi would be it. It was not 49 all-out bad, but it was still terrible. Batting first, the Knights posted a hideous 84/8 in their quota of 20 overs. Their top three combinedly scored three runs and they were mauled by Mohammed Siraj, who finished with figures of 3/8 off his 4 overs. RCB took only 13.3 overs to chase down the modest target to embarrass the Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi.
Royal Challengers Bangalore - Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (wk), Washington Sundar, Daniel Christian, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Kolkata Knight Riders - Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
Wicket-keeper - AB de Villiers
Batsmen - Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Shubman GIll, Devdutt Padikkal
All-rounders - Andre Russell, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed
Bowlers - Harshal Patel, Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy
Captain - AB de VIlliers
Vice Captain - Nitish Rana
Match - Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders, Indian Premier League Match 10
Date – Sunday, April 18, 2021
Time – 3:30 PM IST
Venue – M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
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