Any match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore has always been worth a watch. Last year, in IPL 2016, honors were even between the two sides, with RCB beating KKR in Kolkata by 9 wickets and KKR taking revenge by beating RCB in Bangalore later.
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KKR has a slight edge over RCB in the contests between the two teams, having won 10 out of the 19 games played between them. That indicates that KKR have been a more successful side in the Indian Premier League. RCB have been to the final of the IPL on three occasions but have lost every time, but KKR have won the IPL on two occasions.
This IPL 2017, KKR have done very well and are placed second in the points table. They lost their last match to Gujarat Lions by four wickets, but have beatn Delhi Daredevils by four wickets and Sunrisers Hyderabad by 17 runs.
Royal Challengers Bangalore are seventh as of now. They managed to beat Gujarat Lions by 21 runs but have lost to Rising Pune Supergiant by 27 runs and to Mumbai Indians by four wickets.
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This IPL 2017 has not seen them at their best. While Chris Gayle did well in the last game, he had done precious little before that. RCB are yet to get their combination right. They are likely to pick Samuel Badree and Tymal Mills for this game as they have both recovered from their injuries. AB de Villiers might come back as well. So Travis Head and Shane Watson will be the ones making way for this game. To be fair, neither has impressed in this IPL.
KKR’s gambit of playing Sunil Narine as a pinch hitter at the top of the order worked last match with Narine making 42 off just 17 balls. It remains to be seen whether the experiment will be repeated again.
The Teams
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Shakib Al Hasan, 8 Chris Woakes/Colin de Grandhomme, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Umesh Yadav
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 Travis Head/AB de Villiers, 4 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 5 Mandeep Singh/Harpreet Singh, 6 Stuart Binny, 7 Shane Watson/Samuel Badree, 8 Pawan Negi, 9 Adam Milne/Billy Stanlake/Tymal Mills, 10 S Aravind, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Watch Kolkata Knight Riders take on Royal Challengers Bangalore
tonight at 8 pm live on Sony Six!
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