Sports

KKR will try to get their campaign back on track against RCB

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), hurt by defeat in four consecutive matches, will try to bring their campaign back on track in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) here on Wednesday. Two-time champions KKR have so far won only two out of seven matches and are placed seventh. This has made his path ahead very difficult. KKR has to bear the brunt of the poor performance of the batsmen. He is also missing regular captain Shreyas Iyer and all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.

In the previous match played against Chennai Super Kings on Sunday, KKR batsmen needed to perform well in front of a big target but their top-order batsman Venkatesh Iyer, captain Nitish Rana and N Jagadeesan lost their wickets under pressure. KKR are yet to find the ideal opening pair. He has so far tried Sunil Narine, Jagdishan, Liton Das, Jason Roy and Rahmanullah Gurbaz as openers. Jason Roy and Rinku Singh scored half-centuries in the last match but apart from these two, no other batsman could perform well.

Andre Russell also failed to live up to his role as a finisher. His fitness is also a matter of concern for KKR as he has failed to complete his quota of four overs even once this season. KKR beat RCB by 81 runs earlier this season and will take inspiration from that match. RCB, however, would have taken a boost from their seven-run win over Rajasthan Royals in the previous match and would leave no stone unturned to continue their winning streak. The RCB team led by Faf Duplesey has won four out of seven matches so far and is in fifth place.

Some players from his side have done exceptionally well this season so far. Du Plessis has been in fine form at the moment and has forged fruitful partnerships with Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell. However, it will be a matter of concern for RCB that these three batsmen have scored most of the runs for their side while the rest of the batsmen have failed to score big. Against KKR, he will expect useful contribution from middle order batsmen only.

His middle order has batsmen like Dinesh Karthik, Mahipal Lomror, Shahbaz Ahmed and Suyash Prabhudesai. Among the bowlers, Mohammad Siraj is in career-best form and has taken the most wickets in the current IPL arena so far. Siraj’s Wayne Parnell and Harshal Patel are giving good support. The team’s bowling has been strengthened by the arrival of Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga. The RCB team faltered in front of the KKR spinners earlier this season. KKR spinners Varun Chakravarthy, Suyash Sharma and Narine will again try to repeat the same performance.

Squad: Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf Duplesey (Captain), Akash Deep, Finn Allen, Anuj Rawat, Avinash Singh, Manoj Bhandge, Michael Bracewell, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, Siddharth Kaul, Virat Kohli, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell , Mohammad Siraj, Wayne Parnell, Harshal Patel, Suyash Prabhudesai, Rajan Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Karn Sharma, Himanshu Sharma, Sonu Yadav, Vijaykumar Vaishak, David Willey. Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (Captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakraborty, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Liton Das, Mandeep Singh, Jason Roy. The match will start at 7.30 pm Indian time.

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