Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) lock horns with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bowl first in their Indian Premier League (IPL) clash at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday (April 27).
“Decided to bowl first. No brainer. Evening game at Chinnaswamy, we've chased well here. It was unexpected but nothing I'm not used to (stand-in captaincy). It's been fun so far because of the way the team has been playing. Faf will be playing the impact role again. Hopefully he'll be back leading from the next game. Looks like a great pitch, the usual Chinnaswamy pitch that we expect,” RCB's stand-in skipper Kohli said after winning the toss.
“Second half of the tournament has started, it's an important game. We've played some good cricket, some not so good. It's time to step up. If we play well collectively, the result will be in our favour. In previous games, we've had unforced changes. Shardul had a niggle, Gurbaz had a niggle. We were going to bat. One change from the last match - Vaibhav Arora comes in for Kulwant,” KKR captain Nitish Rana said after the toss.
Head-to-Head
If we look at the head-to-head record, KKR have an edge over RCB with 17-14 scoreline. The two teams have been a part of all the IPL seasons played so far, meeting 31 times on the field. KKR have won 17 out of those 30 games.
Pitch Report
"The dimensions are small. Longest hit is 71 metres, that's not far by any stretch of the imagination. 102 sixes in the five games played here. When you have a look at the surface, as a batter you need to be consistent and being consistent means you got to give yourself a chance. When I look down here, it actually looks very dry. I am completely fine with the batter turning up here thinking 'let me find my way here, is it going to spin, is it not going to spin.' The batters can catch up. As a bowler, you have to be precise with your skills. If you're not, you disappear too often. 194 is an average score here," Pommie Mbangwa and Kevin Pietersen analysed the pitch.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): N Jagadeesan(w), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Vaibhav Arora, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik(w), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, David Willey, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj.
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