Kolkata Knight Riders will look to revive their Vivo IPL 2019 campaign as they lock horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore tonight at Eden Gardens.
After suffering three losses in a row, Skipper Dinesh Karthik and his Knights have a task in hand. From being a very good chasing team to winning matches while defending is one formula Skipper DK and co. will have to come up later this evening.
Almost down and out of the tournament, Virat Kohli's RCB have played the role of spoilers for other teams in past IPLs. The visitors have lost to us earlier in the tournament and the home side will look to make it 2-0 for this season.
Head to Head
KKR: 14 | CSK: 9 (Overall)
KKR: 6 | CSK: 3 (At Eden Gardens)
KKR is considered a very tough team to beat at Eden Gardens. Against Delhi Capitals, the record was 8-1 (in Kolkata) in our favour. CSK had never defeated us in Kolkata since 2013. But all the past records changed in our previous two clashes.
We lost three in a row, all three while defending. The Knights gave a tough fight in all the matches but just couldn't cross the finishing line.
5-0 against RCB in last five encounters
On paper, there's another good reason why KKR will be favourites to win tonight. But here's another fact - four out of those five wins came while chasing. DK and co. will look to break this dreadlock if asked to bat first.
Sunil Narine - Go to Knight!
DK knows the importance of Sunil Narine with both bat and ball. Narine has single handedly changed the game for us in the past.
Narine was impressive with the bowl (2/24 vs CSK, Chennai & 2/19 vs CSK, Kolkata) in the last two matches he played. The Trinidadian has taken 15 wickets against RCB in 12 innings at an economy of 6.7.
As an opener, in six innings, he has scored 176 runs at an impressive strike rate of 217 with two half-centuries.
KKR News:
During net practice on the other night, Andre Russell suffered a blow on the neck. Skipper Dinesh Karthik cleared the air about Russell's injury in a press conference yesterday.
"He went for a preliminary x-ray yesterday. To be fair, it has not even been 24 hours since the incident. We are monitoring him." - DK said during pre-match press conference.
RCB News:
The visitors are just having another bad season in this edition of Vivo IPL. The inclusion of Dale Styen will boost their fast bowling attack.
Virat Kohli's men earned their first points of the season after defeating KXIP. They were close to beat MI in their previous match, but went down after putting up a good fight. With the likes of Kohli, De Villiers and Moeen with the bat, RCB do have a strong batting line-up.
Teams:
RCB: Virat Kohli (C), Mohammed Siraj, Marcus Stoinis, Moeen Ali, Akshdeep Nath, Yuzvendra Chahal, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Colin de Grandhomme, AB de Villiers, Shivam Dube, Gurjeerat Mann Singh, Shimron Hetmyer, Himmat Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya, Heinrich Klaasen, Milind Kumar, Pawan Negi, Devdutt Padikkal, Parthiv Patel (WK), Prayas Ray Barman, Navdeep Saini, Tim Southee, Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav
KKR: Dinesh Karthik (C & WK), Carlos Brathwaite, Sandeep Warrier, Kuldeep Yadav, Shrikant Mundhe, Harry Gurney, Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Nikhil Naik, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna, Andre Russell, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Chris Lynn, Rinku Singh, KC Cariappa, Joe Denly, Prithvi Raj Yarra, Robin Uthappa
Last Five Meetings
KKR 5-0 RCB
Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Date & Time: Friday, 19th April 2019, 8 PM
