IPL 2019: What to expect from the RCB vs KKR match

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will look to win their first match of the tournament when they will go head to head against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 17th match of the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League at their home ground, the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, on Friday.

RCB find themselves in a difficult position after losing their first four matches, and if they want to make it to the playoffs, they will have to start by winning this game. Apart from this, captain Virat Kohli's reputation is also on at stake.

The difficulty for Bangalore is that neither their batsmen nor their bowlers are clicking at the moment. Although Yuzvendra Chahal holds the Purple Cap for the highest number of wickets in the tournament (8), no other bowler in the team has backed him up so far.

The bad performance of the Bangalore team is shown by their last position on the table, as they are yet to win any match. They were defeated by the Rajasthan Royals in their last match.

When it comes to RCB's batting, AB de Villiers and Parthiv Patel definitely showed some character in one solitarily match each, but they could not get the win for their team. Apart from this, their batting has been disappointing throughout the entire tournament. Although they have great match winners like Kohli, Shimron Hetmyer and AB de Villiers in their ranks, they are yet to contribute big for their team. On the other hand, allrounders Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, and Marcus Stoinis have also been disappointing with the bat.

As for RCB's bowling, Yuzvendra Chahal has certainly given them wickets in each match, but Navdeep Saini, Mohammad Siraj has not done anything special. Experienced bowlers like Umesh Yadav and Moeen Ali have also failed to deliver the goods.

The Knight Riders are in form

For Kolkata, their team looks stable both in the batting and bowling department as compared to Bangalore. The star players of Kolkata are also in form. However, they lost their last match to Delhi Capitals but that was pretty close, as the match was decided in the super over.

The hard-hitting all-rounder Andre Russell is in great form. He has proved to be a soldier for the team. Bangalore has to find a way to get him out early. He has displayed amazing skills both with the bat and ball this season. Besides Russell, Kolkata does not have many star batsmen, although Robin Uthappa, captain Dinesh Karthik, and Nitish Rana have established themselves as good batters in the IPL.

They do not have any big name in the fast bowling department, but young Prasidh Krishna and Lockie Ferguson have bowled well in the tournament so far. KKR's strength is their spin bowling trio. Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, and Piyush Chawla are proven match winners. So, they will have to be wary of them.