Bengaluru, Mar 28 (PTI) Victory of their respective earlier video games might need eased the preliminary nerves however imperfections stay, therefore Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders will eye a fast course correction so as to add steam to their marketing campaign in an IPL 2024 match right here on Friday.
The Royal Challengers defeated Punjab Kings by 4 wickets, whereas the Knight Riders elbowed out Sunrisers Hyderabad by 4 runs to garner some early factors.
However getting into the factors desk has not likely eased a few of the worries -– notably pertaining to the highest and middle-order batting.
The Bengaluru dugout is perhaps a cheerful area after star batter Virat Kohli made a cultured fifty on an unusually gripping Chinnaswamy pitch whereas chasing 177 in opposition to Punjab the opposite night time, however that’s just one a part of the story.
Skipper Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameroon Inexperienced and Rajat Patidar are but to hit the overdrive, and for the win in opposition to PBKS they needed to depend on the last-minute cameos of Dinesh Karthik and ‘Influence Participant’ Mahipal Lomror.
The Kolkatans have a way more succesful bowling unit, not less than on paper, and such a collectively underwhelming effort by frontline batters would possibly push RCB into deep troubles in opposition to them.
As soon as they iron out that tough edges, RCB can take a look at their bowling unit that also must fill a few unticked packing containers regardless of good outings by pacers Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal in opposition to Punjab.
Pacer Alzarri Joseph continues to be profligate and his figures — 0/38, 1/43 — would possibly immediate the RCB think-tank to usher in England left-arm fast Reece Topley, who has spectacular white-ball abilities, instead of the West Indian for this match.
The Knight Riders supply a strikingly comparable plot. Their prime and middle-order consisting of captain Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana malfunctioned in opposition to SRH on the Eden Gardens.
It required a mixed effort from impression sub Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh and Andre Russell — the 6, 7, 8 — for them to publish a aggressive complete.
Shreyas, who’s central to their batting plans, was dismissed for a two-ball duck, however the return to Chinnaswamy would possibly give him a way of reduction as he had fruitful outings right here in white-ball cricket in his final two innings.
The elegant right-hander made an unbeaten 128 in opposition to the Netherlands in final 12 months’s World Cup earlier than making a 53 in opposition to Australia within the fifth T20I in December.
In bowling, Narine redeemed himself with a frugal spell (1/19) after a modest effort with the bat, however pacer Mitchell Starc, their report purchase, and Varun Chakravarthy did not impress, leaking over 50 runs of their 4 overs.
The KKR think-tank won’t be unduly nervous as their marketing campaign continues to be at a nascent stage, however they wish to see the first-choice pacer and spinner discovering their vary on the earliest.
However it’s unlikely that the Knights will make modifications to their eleven for this match, except they need to give a go to promising leg-spinner Suyash Sharma, who confirmed advantageous type throughout KKR’s pre-season matches.
Squads: Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Inexperienced, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Match begins at 7.30 PM. PTI UNG AM UNG AM AM
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