IPL 2021, Live Cricket Score, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR): Siraj's economy in the three games so far has been 5.88. The openers have a big target and some good bowlers to tackle. Seven from the over. Rana got off the mark with a push to the backward point. Gill got off the mark with a handsome looking drive through extra cover. A single on the last delivery for Gill with a push to midon. There was a wide as well in the over.
Preview: Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Kolkata Knight Riders in the first match of the Sunday doubleheader, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
RCB are the only unbeaten side remaining in the IPL this season having won both of their encounters so far. RCB defeated defending champions Mumbai Indians by two wickets on the opening night of the 2021 edition and then blanked Sunrisers Hyderabad by six runs in the second match.
RCB, despite always boasting some of the biggest T20 names, have regularly failed to live up to the expectations but the story so far has been quite different. Though only two matches old, the current RCB side appears more balanced and less reliant on superstars.
Indian uncapped players like Harshal Patel and Shahbaz Ahmed have already played match-winning roles with AB de Villers and Glenn Maxwell coming good with the bat. Despite Virat Kohli having ordinary nights, the team has not missed him a lot.
One area of concern is their batting. While they managed to chase down the total in the first game and posted a match-winning total in the second, the team would want the top and middle order to fire in unison to reach its potential.
On the other hand, KKR have won one out of their two matches so far. They made a winning start by beating SRH by 10 runs before losing to MI in the second match by 10 runs. While their bowling department has been impressive in both the matches, the team's middle and lower order batting has failed to fire.
Opener Nitish Rana has scored two fifties so far and the team has been overly reliant on the top order to get the runs. The failure of the middle and top order costed them dearly against MI where they failed to chase a target of 153. Against a team boasting of talents like Kohli, de Villiers and Maxwell, KKR cannot afford another batting collapse.
Overall, KKR have a 15-12 head-to-head advantage over RCB and despite the current form favouring Kohli's side, Morgan and Co will not be willing to give even an inch to their opposition.
Squads:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers(w), Washington Sundar, Daniel Christian, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Sachin Baby, Srikar Bharat, Navdeep Saini, Pavan Deshpande, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Finn Allen, Suyash Prabhudessai, Daniel Sams
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Shakib Al Hasan, Dinesh Karthik(w), Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Kuldeep Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Sheldon Jackson, Sandeep Warrier, Tim Seifert, Lockie Ferguson, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Vaibhav Arora
