De Villiers and Badree expected to play for RCB
Match facts
Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Start time 2000 IST (1430 GMT)
Head to head
Last season: Each team won their away match - Royal Challengers thumped Knight Riders by nine wickets at Eden Gardens but lost their home match by five wickets.
Overall: Knight Riders have won 10 of the 19 matches between the two sides. At Eden Gardens, Royal Challengers have won three out of seven matches.
In the news
Seamer S Aravind said that AB de Villiers, Samuel Badree and Tymal Mills were likely to be fit for the match against Knight Riders. If that is the case, and Royal Challengers look at picking both overseas players, at least Travis Head and Shane Watson could make way for them.
Likely XIs
Kolkata Knight Riders 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Shakib Al Hasan, 8 Chris Woakes/Colin de Grandhomme, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Umesh Yadav
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 Travis Head/AB de Villiers, 4 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 5 Mandeep Singh/Harpreet Singh, 6 Stuart Binny, 7 Shane Watson/Samuel Badree, 8 Pawan Negi, 9 Adam Milne/Billy Stanlake/Tymal Mills, 10 S Aravind, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Strategy punt
- In the match against Lions, Knight Riders opened their attack with spin - Sunil Narine and Shakib Al Hasan. If Gayle plays, that plan may be used again. Narine has one of the best economy rates against Gayle among spinners (4.39) in T20s, and has dismissed him four times - twice in the IPL.
- Knight Riders will also be mindful of Royal Challengers' struggles in the Powerplay, especially against spin. In the Powerplay this season, Royal Challengers have scored the fewest runs among all teams: 239 at a run rate of 6.83. Against spin in Powerplays, they have scored at a rate of 4.33, the slowest, compared to 7.33 against pace. Some of those struggles, however, are also down to the constant shuffling in the line-up forced by injuries and form: they have had five opening pairs this season, compared to three for Knight Riders and Lions.
Key stats
- Knight Riders will be particularly keen to get Gayle out early. At Eden Gardens, Gayle has scored 471 runs in nine innings, his second-best tally at a ground during the IPL after the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Since his switch to the Royal Challengers franchise in 2011, Gayle's scores at Eden Gardens have been: 102*, 86, 6, 96 and 49, all batting second. Three of those knocks have resulted in wins.
- Knight Riders will also be looking to improve their own bowling record in the Powerplay this season: it has been their weakest passage with the ball, with three wickets at an economy rate of 9.11. Their bowlers have been the strongest during the middle overs (7-15th), taking 22 wickets, the most, at an economy rate of 7.68.
- Royal Challengers' economy rate of 8.67 in the middle overs is, by contrast, the second poorest among teams this season, and they have taken 12 wickets in that phase. Their bowlers have been most effective in the Powerplay with 10 wickets at an economy rate of 8.25
- Manish Pandey has hit 11 sixes in the tournament, already his personal best in an IPL season. He has, however, had a bigger impact with the bat: 236 of his 245 runs in the tournament so far have come outside of the Powerplay overs, the most by a batsman this season. To put that in perspective from Knight Riders' point of view, the next most successful batsman for them outside of the Powerplay is Robin Uthappa with 138 runs. Pandey's contribution to Knight Riders' tally outside of the Powerplay stands at 35.54%.