The Eden Gardens in Kolkata will witness an epic confrontation between home side Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 48th match of the VIVO IPL 2016. The Knight Riders have performed exceptionally in the tournament with 7 victories from 11 games so far. The Challengers, on the other hand, have proved to be a dangerous side but their performance has been highly inconsistent with just 5 wins in the 11 matches they have played.
KKR is among the most balanced teams in the 9th edition of the IPL and there have been some excellent performances across both batting and bowling from the players. With a win against Rising Pune Supergiants in their previous match, the Kolkata team has moved a step closer to sealing a berth in the playoffs for the 2016 IPL.
RCB, on the other hand, have relied quite heavily on their top-order batting to deliver the goods for them. There have been very few games in the tournament where the bowlers have done well for them. The Bangalore side needs to win all its remaining matches this season in order to safely make it to the playoff stage of the tournament.
The importance of the match is far greater for Royal Challengers Bangalore as they need to win in order to stay alive in their quest for the playoffs. Kolkata Knight Riders, however, will also want to get a victory as it will help them become one of the 4 teams to progress further from the league stage.
Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Match date: 16 May 2016
Match timings: 20:00 IST, 14:30 GMT
If Kolkata Knight Riders bat first
Predicted score: 170 and above
Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa have led from the front for KKR in their batting department. The openers have been one of the best batting pairs in the tournament and have together a number of useful partnerships for their team. Yusuf Pathan has also come up with a stellar performance this season and has been scoring his runs at a strike-rate of close to 170.
Suryakumar Yadav and Manish Pandey have also done a commendable job in the middle order while Shakib Al Hasan recently returned to form with a brisk half-century against Gujarat Lions. Andre Russell, too, has done his job and managed to play a few cameos in the lower middle order.
Russell has topped the bowling charts for Kolkata as well and features at No. 2 on the list of Purple Cap contenders. Leggie Piyush Chawla has been in fine wicket-taking form with 11 wickets in the tournament whereas fast bowler Umesh Yadav has also performed quite well with the ball for his 10 wickets.
Sunil Narine may not have been as successful as some of the previous seasons but he has still managed to pick a few wickets and boasts of a miserly economy rate of 6.71 thus far. Shakib, Morne Morkel and Brad Hogg, too, have not gone empty handed and share 15 wickets between themselves.
Skipper Gambhir may not be too keen to make too many changes to the side in the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore. However, he may be forced to reassess his bowling attack considering the threat that the opposition's formidable batting line-up is likely to pose.
If Royal Challengers Bangalore bat first
Predicted score: 175 and above
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers have been running the show as far as the RCB batting in the current season of the IPL is concerned. While Kohli is the leading run-scorer in the tournament with a staggering tally of 677 runs so far, de Villiers occupies the 2nd spot in the list with 538 runs in 11 innings. A testimony to their success is the fact that the duo has recorded the top three partnerships in terms of runs in the 9th edition of the IPL.
Among other Bangalore batsmen, KL Rahul has been pretty exceptional as he boasts of a 50-plus average and has scored 4 half-centuries already. Shane Watson, too, has managed to score some quick runs in the last few overs and so has Sachin Baby. One of the big disappointments in the batting department has been the poor form of senior batsman, Chris Gayle, even though it has hardly made an impact on the team.
Watson has been RCB's most successful bowler in the 9th edition of the IPL with a tally of 14 wickets and also features among the top 5 wicket-takers overall. Apart from the Australian all-rounder, only leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has been able to make an impression as he has claimed 11 wickets from 8 matches.
England's Chris Jordan, who has recently been drafted into the team, went for a lot of runs in his first 3 matches but pulled things back really well with a 4-wicket haul against Gujarat Lions. Most of the other bowlers have struggled to make their mark in the tournament and have contributed largely to their team's bowling woes.
Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper may be tempted to include an extra spinner in his side for Monday's match considering the kind of turn that is generally available on the Eden Gardens pitch.
Probable Winners: Kolkata Knight Riders
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download Cric Rocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more!
