The 39th match of the tournament is going to be played in Abu Dhabi between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
In this tournament, KKR, as well as RCB, have played 9 games each, out of which KKR have won 5 and RCB have one 6 games respectively.
If KKR defeats RCB by a huge margin they can topple them to be at the third position if RCB defeats KKR they will replace MI to be at the second position in the table.
Match Details
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (RR)
Match 39 - IPL 2020, 18:00 Local time, 19:30 IST.
Television Broadcast India: Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports Select, and Star Sports Select HD
Live Streaming: Disney+Hotstar
Head to Head
Overall, twenty-five matches have been played between these teams wherein KKR has a winning record against RCB.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have won 14 matches whereas the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have won 11 matches.
In the last five meetings between them, KKR have won 3 out of the 5 matches.
RCB dominated KKR in this year's first-leg encounter, defeating them by 82 runs.
Squads
Top Players in KKR & RCB
KKR:
A Russell: He faltered with the bat again in the previous match, to add to the misery he was taken apart by Warner and Co in the 20th over which he bowled. He has played a few quickfire cameos in the season but none of his innings has been match-defining. The good thing for KKR is that even without him performing well, KKR have had decent results. They might leave him out of today's match and bring in Chris Green or even S Narine.
D Karthik: D Karthik played a quickfire cameo towards the end of the innings for KKR in the previous match. He scored 29 runs off just 14 balls, apart from this only other inning of importance he played was against KXIP where he scored 58 runs to be the Man of the Match. Now that he has been relieved from his captainship responsibilities he can solely focus on batting and wicket-keeping for his team, this might help him get his old mojo back.
L Ferguson: He was the man who made the difference in the previous match against SRH. In his first four overs, he gave away only 15 runs and picked up three wickets. Later in the super over, he took 2 wickets in just 3 deliveries to give KKR a comfortable score of 2 to chase.
S Gill: This youngster has been the batting backbone for KKR, He has scored 311 runs at an average of 38 for them. His role seems to be clearly defined as the sheet-anchor. He is the only KKR batsmen to feature in the top 15 run-scorers. It would be interesting to see him face C Morris.
RCB:
V Kohli: The Indian Captain- V Kohli has been stupendous after initial few failures this season. This all-time leading run-scorer in IPL stands 5th this year when it comes to run-scoring, he has scored 347 runs at an average of 57.83 this year. H
AB de Villiers: He has scored at the strike-rate of 190 this year which is second only to Pollard who has scored at the strike-rate of 200. Whenever he has spent some time on crease he has literally destroyed the bowling attack.
A Finch: Finch has failed to score runs in four consecutive matches now. As long as they are winning as a team, such performances get sidelined. Had they been losing these matches, he might have been out of the side already. He needs to pull his weight in the future to retain his side. Finch for some reason has never succeeded in IPL - his international T20 record is much better than his IPL record.
Y Chahal: He picked up two wickets against RR and has been amongst the wickets more often than not for RCB. He has picked up 13 wickets at an average of 20 this year. He will play a very crucial role in today's match.
D Padikkal: He has been very consistent with his batting for RCB. His strike rate dipped a little in the previous match against RR but played a crucial inning off 35 from 37 balls while chasing. The maturity with which he has played this season many wouldn't believe that it is his first IPL season.
Likely Playing 11
KKR:
S Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, E Morgan (C), Andre Russell/Chris Green/S Narine, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, L Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy.
RCB:
Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, V Kohli (C), AB de Villiers (WK), G Singh, W Sundar, Chris Morris, Shahbaz Ahmed, I Udana, Navdeep Saini, Y Chahal.
Other Players Who Can Make an Impact
W Sundar(RCB): He has been splendid with the ball in the power-play overs. It would be an exciting battle between the KKR openers and this skilled bowler. Not to forget, he is seventh in the list of most economical bowlers this year!\
E Morgan(KKR): The New Captain for KKR has been extremely effective with the bat in the lower order, if he promotes himself higher up the order he can create a havoc in the opposition.
On Paper and based on form, RCB is the preferred favourite in this match. KKR would want to be more consistent with their performances so that they can keep a safe distance between them and KXIP, who are breathing down their neck in the IPL table.