BENGALURU: It is early days yet but going by past performances, RCB cannot afford to ease into form. They need to secure every win possible, especially at home. Bengaluru will host KKR on Friday and early impressions suggest that gaps in their batting and bowling units need to be filled. KKR, who have won the last five matches here, hold an edge.
What RCB do have is the confidence of having won the previous game and will seek to keep the momentum going.
Virat Kohli
’s sizzling show against Punjab Kings would be heartening, but, starting with skipper Faf du Plessis (35 & 3), the top and middle order need to come together.
Cameron Green (18 & 3),
Glenn Maxwell
(0 & 3) and Rajat Patidar (0 & 18) have turned in underwhelming performances so far. They cannot sit back and wait for the tide, especially against a team like KKR. What’s worked nicely for RCB is Dinesh Karthik’s match-defining unbeaten knocks in both matches. Also, youngsters Anuj Rawat and Mahipal Lomror have stepped up in the lower order.
However, familiar bowling woes continue to haunt RCB. While the newball pair of Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal have delivered, West Indies pacer Alzarri Joseph has struggled. In the spin department, Mayank Dagar has failed to find a partner.
At the M Chinnaswamy stadium, the margin of error for bowlers is narrow. RCB’s bowlers will have their task cut out against a Kolkata outfit which has hard, ruthless hitters. If the likes of Phil Salt,
Sunil Narine
and Shreyas Iyer can be dangerous in the top order,
Rinku Singh
and Andre Russell are proven performers for the bowling side. “In the previous match there was a little up and down movement in the pitch. For Friday’s match, it should be a good wicket with some pace in it and that could probably suit the team,” said RCB’s batting coach Neil Mckenzie.
It will also be a sort of homecoming for KKR’s
Mitchell Starc
, who at Rs 24.75 cr is the most expensive IPL player. Prior to Starc’s nine-year hiatus from the league, he had spent the two seasons he played in 2014 and 2015 as an RCB pacer. So, the Chinnaswamy is not unfamiliar territory for him, but the circumstances are. His return to the competition was rather forgettable, with 53 runs off his four overs against Punjab.
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