High-flying Royal Challengers Bangalore take on wrangling Kolkata Knight Riders at Abu Dhabi as IPL resumes.
Overview
RCB has reinforced the squad by including WaninduHasaranga, Tim David, DushmanthaChameera for the remainder of the season. However, losing Washington Sundar due to injury has been a big blow to the side, considering the squad’s balance. Whereas, for KKR, Tim Southee has replaced Pat Cummins.
Stats that Matter
RCB has won four out of the last five games against KKR.
In the previous five matches played at Abu Dhabi, the side chasing a target has won on four out of five occasions, and the side winning the toss has a 100% win rate.
In the previous five matches, average Power Play score batting first at Abu Dhabi 49 for 1 wicket; whereas, chasing sides average Power Play score at Abu Dhabi is 55 for 1 wicket
In the previous five matches at Abu Dhabi spinners have picked up 12 wickets and Fast bowlers have picked up 32 wickets.
So far this season A B De Villiers has scored at a strike rate of 243 during the death overs.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
KKR are currently positioned second last on the points table with just 4 points from their 7 matches. KKR needs to win a minimum of 6 matches and hope to have a better net run rate. Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan, Sunil Narine and Dinesh Karthik need to fire collectively. In the last five matches between the two sides A B de Villiers and Virat Kohli have collectively scored 145 runs in 124 balls but have lost 5 wickets in the due course.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
Skipper Virat Kohli is all set to play his 200th game for RCB, making him the 6th batsman in the IPL history to achieve this feet. RCB has leaked runs during the death overs. In last 5 games the RCB bowlers have conceded 286 runs in 25 overs at an average of 11.44. Wanindu Hasaranga is expected to make his IPL debut against KKR on Monday.
Pitch Report & Toss
The wicket seems to favour fast bowlers, with very less amount of spin. An odd bowl might just hold up during the first innings. Average first inning score in the last five games at Abu Dhabi is 147 for loss of 7 wickets. Team winning the toss must opt to bowl. As the day progresses scoring runs becomes easier.
Clean Hitters
Kolkata Knight Riders: Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik and Rahul Tripathi
Royal Challengers Bangalore: A B de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal and Glenn Maxwell
Death Over Specialists
Kolkata Knight Riders: Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy and Andre Russell
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Harshal Patel, Kyle Jamieson and Mohammed Siraj
5 Must-Have players in your fantasy team
Andre Russell, Virat Kohli, Lockie Ferguson, Harshal Patel and Sunil Narine