As the race for the playoff spots heats up, both teams will be hoping their bowling attacks come good in tonight’s encounter.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in match 29 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Sunday.
The last time these two teams faced off in this season’s IPL, KKR riding on a quickfire fifty by Narine (50 from 19 balls) successfully chased down RCB’s total of 176 with an over to spare. Bangalore will be looking for a revenge as they find themselves second from the bottom on the points table.
Coming into the game, RCB will be concerned about their bowling attack which has continued to leak runs all through the season. In the previous outing, the RCB batsmen got their team off to a great start posting 205 on the board.
But their bowlers let them down as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) inspired by Ambati Rayudu and MS Dhoni chased down that total with .
related news
Kolkata will have bowling concerns of their own after they conceded the highest total of this season’s IPL in their previous outing against the Delhi Daredevils. Delhi scoring at 10.95 per over, posted 219 on the board and then went on to bowl out the Kolkata batsmen for just 164 runs, handing KKR a .
Match Details:
Timing – 8 pm
Venue – M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
Where to watch – Star Sports 1 & Star Sports 1 HD
Head to Head: Kolkata hold an edge over their Bangalore counterparts, out of the 21 matches that these two teams have played against each other, KKR have emerged winners on 12 occasions as compared to the nine times that RCB have won.
Team news: While there aren’t any major injury concerns for both sides, they will be looking to tinker with their line-ups in light of their recent disappointing results.
Kolkata will be expected to return Tom Curran to the starting 11 in place of the expensive Mitchell Johnson. They might also be tempted to give Vinay Kumar another go in place of Shivam Mavi.
Bangalore could bring back Moeen Ali to the team especially on a track that offers a lot for spinners. If this happens de Grandhomme will be expected to be the one to make way for the spinner.
Prediction: Who will win?
While RCB boast of big hitters in their line-up, Kolkata do have the quality in their bowling attack to do some serious damage to them. If Kolkata manage to grab some early wickets then their spin trio of Narine, Chawla and Yadav will be expected to stifle the RCB middle order.
However, this will be a tough game to call as much depends on the start that each team makes early in the innings.
Stadium Pitch Report: The pitch here is known to assist the batting side with the ball coming on nicely to the bat and the small boundaries helping the batsmen clear the ground more easily. However, the pitch also has much to offer for the spinners and it will be great to see the KKR and RCB spin attack in action once more.
MC Dream 11: Q de Kock (wk), V Kohli, AB de Villiers, C Lynn, S Narine, A Russell, N Rana, W Sundar, T Curran, Y Chahal and U Yadav
Players to watch out for:
Yuzvendra Chahal, RCB – While the RCB batting line-up will be expected to fire once again, much will be expected from their bowlers at their home stadium. Chahal has performed brilliantly on this track and is able to extract great spin from the pitch to disturb the batsmen. His dismissals of Billings and Jadeja in the previous game were absolutely top class and RCB will be hoping he replicates that performance tonight.
Sunil Narine, KKR – It was Narine’s 50 off 19 balls which helped carry KKR to victory in the previous encounter between the two teams this season. In a stadium with smaller boundaries and a pitch that offers a lot to spinners, the KKR man will be tipped to contribute highly both with bat as well as ball tonight.
IPL points table:
RCB are currently seventh on the table, tied on four points with Delhi and Mumbai. Kolkata have six points from their seven games and find themselves in fourth position on the table. However, Rajasthan who play Hyderabad in the earlier game could go ahead even before KKR take the field tonight. Find the .