TACTICAL PREVIEW
Follow UsIt’s been nearly a month since Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won an Indian Premier League (IPL) game. When they beat Punjab Kings (PBKS) at home on March 25, it seemed like one win out of two was not a bad start. However, little did one anticipate that 26 days and 30 matches later, they would take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens, having not added to their tally.
To put it more into context, every team in the tournament has won at least one match in April, of course, barring RCB. If they fail to turn one win into two, it could just be a matter of a few more days before RCB are officially eliminated. Do they need a bigger motivation to win this encounter?
The Shreyas Iyer-led side, on the other hand, are flying high. They are second in the table and could not have run into Faf du Plessis' men at a better time, given that they were on the receiving end of a painful loss against Rajasthan Royals (RR). While their opponents are merely looking to stay relevant in the competition, KKR will be hoping to take another step in confirming their place in the playoffs.
While KKR have been among the best batting units this season, RCB have been the worst bowling side. We are certainly in for some fireworks at the Eden Gardens.
KKR vs RCB Head-to-Head
Overall - Games 33 | KKR 19 | RCB 14
In Kolkata - Games 11 | KKR 7 | RCB 4
Since 2021 - Games 7 | KKR 5 | RCB 2
Venue details
The pacers may have picked up 54% of the wickets to fall at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, in the IPL since 2023, but it is the spinners who have been far more economical, conceding just 8.6 an over (Pacers 10.4). This season, though, pacers have picked up 24 wickets (Econ 10.6), while the spinners have picked up nine scalps (Econ 9.2).
The average first innings score here since IPL 2023 has been 194/7. Out of the 10 matches in this period, the captain winning the toss has opted to bowl on nine occasions. However, the team batting second has won just 50% of these matches.
This season, the team chasing has won two of the three matches so far. Given that this is a day game, will the captain winning the toss continue the trend of bowling first? For the record, KKR did so in their previous day game here against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 14 and ended up winning comfortably.
Weather forecast
It is going to be a hot day in Kolkata on Sunday, with the temperature set to be about 41°C at the start of the match. Thankfully, it will go down to 37 °C by the end of the match. However, the humidity will go up to 37% after starting at 24% initially. Safe to say, we will have no rain interruption and get a full game in.
Things to watch out for
Can Shreyas, Venky contribute more?
KKR have been among the most explosive sides in the tournament, having scored at 10.6 an over. They have scored at 10.7 in the powerplay, and at the death, they have been the best batting unit, having got their runs at 12.8 an over. However, they will want the Iyers – Shreyas and Venkatesh – to step up. Venkatesh has managed just 73 runs from six innings this season, which includes a fifty – incidentally against RCB. Shreyas, on the other hand, has three 30-plus scores but is yet to turn that into anything substantial.
He has struggled against left-arm pacers in the IPL, having been dismissed by them on six occasions since 2022 (Ave 18.7, SR 113).
How do you stop DK?
Other than Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik has been the most consistent b̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ player for RCB this season. Barring a couple of innings, Karthik has struck at over 230 in all the innings this season. Moreover, he has a strike rate of 253 at the death – the highest in the tournament aong batters who have faced at least 30 balls. And he strikes at 215 against the pacers.
DK, who is known to move around the crease a lot, has hit 58% of his runs behind the wicket, with fine-leg being his favourite, accounting for 18% of his total runs.
KKR will have to be wary of their former player and captain if they want to keep RCB to an under-par total.
Probable XIs:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Philip Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh , Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana; Vaibhav Arora/Manish Pandey (IP)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Saurav Chauhan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mahipal Lomror, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Reece Topley, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal; Anuj Rawat/Akash Deep (IP)
Telecast and streaming details
The match will be live on Star Sports Network and live-streamed on Jio Cinema. The game will start at 3:30 PM, with the toss happening at 3 PM.
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