Sharjah: Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2020 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday (October 12). Both teams have made positive starts to their campaign and have four wins from six games. RCB come into this game off a 37-run win over CSK, led by an unbeaten 90 from skipper Virat Kohli.
Meanwhile, KKR stole one from under KXIP’s noses to snatch the game to their side by two runs. RCB seem to have found the perfect team combination, and they’ve looked really comfortable when on the field, sticking to a clear strategy. They’re also getting runs from different sources, with Devdutt Padikkal’s batting being a huge positive. The pressure on Kohli and ABD has reduced considerably this season. Aaron Finch’s struggle is the only concern that they might have.
Chris Morris made a solid return from injury and bowled a very tight spell against CSK. RCB have also managed to extract the best out of Washington Sundar, with the youngster bowling exceptionally well in the powerplay. RCB seem to have also sorted out their death bowling, which has been an area of concern for them in the past few seasons.
KKR has made some questionable decisions in the middle, with the dynamic batting and bowling order seeing questions raised by the experts. It has all worked out for Dinesh Karthik-led side with the team winning four out of their six matches so far. They have been pretty well with the willow in this season, with Shubman Gill being the top scorer. Dinesh Karthik and Eoin Morgan have also done well a little lower down the order.
It’s their bowling that receives the huge praise though, and deservedly so. Their bowling attack, which has plenty of options, successfully defended totals from losing positions against both CSK and KXIP. Special praise should be meted out to Sunil Narine, who has delivered well to death bowling duties.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), Aaron Finch, Devdutt Padikkal, Chris Morris, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Pavan Deshpande, Pawan Negi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, AB de Villiers, Josh Philippe, Parthiv Patel, Dale Steyn, Adam Zampa, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Shivam Mavi, Sandeep Warrier, Kuldeep Yadav, Eoin Morgan, Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine, Nikhil Naik, Manimaran Siddharth, Andre Russell, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Tom Banton, Chris Green, Rahul Tripathi.
