Aware that they can’t afford any extra slip-ups, Royal Challengers Bengaluru may have their activity lower out once they face dominant hosts Kolkata Knight Riders in a difficult Indian Premier League match in Kolkata on April 21.
RCB’s pursuit of a maiden IPL title has as soon as once more hit a roadblock following six losses in seven matches.
With 5 consecutive defeats, the bottom-ranked RCB now confront the daunting activity of successful their remaining seven video games to maintain their playoff prospects alive.
For a facet that has been severely let down by their bowlers and depends closely on the batting prowess of Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and veteran Dinesh Karthik, going through KKR presents a major problem.
“From a bowling perspective, we don’t have as many weapons. So, unfortunately, it comes down to the batters to make sure that we use our form and our confidence. The scores that we put on the board are probably going to be the only way we are going to get into the competition,” their skipper Du Plessis has admitted earlier.
The undeniable fact that they’re coming after conceding the IPL’s report complete of 287/3 by Sunrisers Hyderabad of their final match will undoubtedly linger within the minds of their bowlers.
It wouldn’t be a nasty concept to carry again their most costly (Rs 11.5-crore) purchase this season, Alzarri Joseph, to go alongside Mohammed Siraj, who was not picked towards SRH.
Joseph has bagged a solitary wicket in three appearances for RCB whereas additionally getting hammered at 11.89 runs per over.
Glenn Maxwell’s spin additionally may have been a pleasant choice, however the struggling Australian all-rounder, who pulled out of the sport towards SRH citing “mental fatigue”, can also be battling a hip pressure that will hold him out of motion for some extra time.
Their batting has centred across the two openers — Kohli and Du Plessis — and Karthik, whereas the remainder of the gamers have failed miserably.
Kohli is as soon as once more main the run chart with 361 runs at 72.20, although his center over strike fee of 135 has been a reason for concern.
The star Indian batter as a rule was seen to have slowed down towards the spinners within the essential 7-Fifteenth over section after getting a begin within the energy play.
Du Plessis has been their subsequent greatest batter with 232 runs, but it surely’s seasoned wicketkeeper-batter Karthik, who has been phenomenal in his remaining IPL season.
The veteran has amassed 226 runs at a strike-rate of 205-plus and within the monstrous chase towards SRH, it was his 35-ball 83 that gave them hope of scripting an inconceivable win earlier than they fell quick by 25 runs.
The trio will once more should play a key position towards the likes of Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc and Harshit Rana.
The house facet can even be approaching the again of a defeat to Rajasthan Royals in a last-ball end.
So KKR, who’ve performed one match much less then RCB, can even eye a return to successful methods and inch nearer to playoffs by taking their tally to 10 factors on the halfway stage.
The largest risk for RCB will likely be Narine, not simply with the ball but in addition with the bat on the high of the order.
Narine, who scored his maiden T20 century of their final match towards RR, is KKR’s main run-getter this season with 276 runs at an unbelievable strike fee of over 187.
The subsequent greatest KKR batter is his opening companion Phil Salt, who has struck at a fee of 151-plus.
The pair’s splendid type signifies that the likes of Rinku Singh, Andre Russell have gotten restricted alternatives.
With a maiden fifty to his identify, teenager Angkrish Raghuvanshi has impressed along with his batting.
RCB should goal the KKR top-three to reveal their batting and provides themselves some probability.
With town within the grip of an excessive warmth wave, the temperature is anticipated to soar to 41-degree Centigrade come Sunday.
Teams (from):
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh and Saurav Chauhan.
Match begins at 3.30pm.
