RCB face stern KKR bowling test in crucial IPL clash at Raipur

Royal Challengers Bengaluru must deliver a stronger batting performance against Kolkata Knight Riders’ in-form bowling attack in Raipur. With playoff spots at stake, both sides face pressure as RCB seeks consistency and KKR fights to keep their campaign alive

Raipur: Royal Challengers Bengaluru will require a significantly punchier batting effort to overcome Kolkata Knight Riders’ in-form bowling unit and close in on an IPL playoffs berth here on Wednesday.
RCB are currently perched atop the points table with 14 points, but they will lose that spot to either Sunrisers Hyderabad or Gujarat Titans, who also have 14 points.

However, more than that temporary slip, the RCB management will be focussed on their batters, who would be expected to deliver the signature effort, which marked their campaign early this season.

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The Bengaluru batting unit was a pale shadow of its fear-inducing self against Mumbai Indians while chasing a middling 167 here.

They needed a determined half-century from Krunal Pandya and a six in the fourth ball of the final over from Bhuvneshwar Kumar to chase that down.

Patidar off the boil

Skipper Rajat Patidar’s contribution is important in that aura-rebuilding exercise.

After a glorious run early in the tournament, punctuated by a shower of sixes, the right-hander seems to have slumped of late, managing just one fifty-plus score and one 20-plus score in the last six innings.

It has reduced the RCB’s middle-order fire-power to a certain degree, but contributions from others batters like Devdutt Padikkal and Tim David have helped them stay above the water.

However, they will be up against a potent Knight Riders’ bowling unit that has mystery spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, who have been well-supported by domestic names like Kartik Tyagi, Vaibhav Arora and Anukul Roy.

Their superb outings have helped the Kolkatans register four wins on the trot after faltering initially.

If the Raipur pitch retains its tacky character from the previous match, then the RCB batters will have one heck of a job at hand against a competent set of KKR bowlers.

But the three-time champions are still eighth on the table with nine points from 10 matches, and a misadventure here will certainly push them closer to elimination from the play-offs race.

To avoid that scenario, the Knight Riders batters will also have to chip in, effectively countering the RCB new ball operators — Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood.

Skipper Ajinkya Rahane still has no grip on his craft this season but vice-captain Rinku Singh, Kiwi Finn Allen, Anukul Roy and Angkrish Raghuvanshi have shored up their batting in the last few matches.

Australian all-rounder Cameron Green too has shown massive improvement after a cold start, and it has helped bring some stability to KKR.

They will need an encore here for KKR to sustain their run and keep their slender chances of reaching playoffs alive.

Teams (from):

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (captain), Virat Kohli, Tim David, Jacob Bethell, Romario Shepherd, Josh Hazlewood, Nuwan Thushara, Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Rasikh Dar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jordan Cox, Suyash Sharma, Venkatesh Iyer, Swapnil Singh, Jacob Duffy, Kanishk Chouhan, Abhinandan Singh, Mangesh Yadav, Phil Salt, Satvik Deswal, Vicky Ostwal, Vihaan Malhotra.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Rahul Tripathi, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Singh, Tim Seifert, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Cameron Green, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Matheesha Pathirana, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Deep, Varun Chakaravarthy, Prashant Solanki.

Match starts at 7.30pm.