3 player battles to watch out for in KKR vs RCB, Match 36 of IPL 2024 ft. Virat Kohli vs Sunil Narine

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are set to host the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Eden Gardens on Sunday, April 21. It will be the second time the two teams will be locking horns in IPL 2024.

KKR have been on an upward curve this season despite suffering a heartbreaking two-run defeat at the hands of the Rajasthan Royals in their previous game. They will look to bounce back against an RCB side that's on the brink of getting eliminated from the playoff race.

Dinesh Karthik's heroics in their previous game brought RCB within 25 runs of the record IPL total put up by the SunRisers Hyderabad (287/3). However, the spirited effort couldn't stop what was a seventh loss for Bengaluru in IPL 2024. With every game from here pretty much a do-or-die for them, RCB will need to be at their absolute best to beat KKR in their den.

On that note, let's take a look at three match-ups that could have a massive impact on the result of the game:

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#3 Faf du Plessis vs Harshit Rana

RCB skipper Faf du Plessis had a horrific start to the IPL 2024 season with the bat, putting a lot of pressure on Virat Kohli to do the bulk of the scoring. However, the South African veteran has seen an uptick in form in the past two games with back-to-back half-centuries against Mumbai Indians and SunRisers Hyderabad.

Bengaluru would love to see their captain make it a hat-trick of half-centuries, but Kolkata have an interesting match-up in the form of Harshit Rana. Harshit has been a revelation for KKR this season with his change of pace being effective in deceiving the batters.

Du Plessis has faced just three balls from Harshit, scoring seven runs. However, he has also been dismissed once and the hosts would love Harshit to get the RCB captain once again on Sunday.

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#2 Sunil Narine vs Mohammed Siraj

While Mohammed Siraj was benched for RCB's previous game, he may be called back into the playing XI if the visitors are aware of his positive match-up against the dangerous Sunil Narine.

The West Indies all-rounder is fresh off a sensational hundred against the Royals and has a history of tormenting RCB's bowling attack. However, Du Plessis can use Siraj's positive match-up and try and negate Narine's threat.

Narine has scored just 12 runs from 11 balls faced off Siraj and has also been dismissed twice by the Indian pacer.

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#1 Virat Kohli vs Sunil Narine

Sunil Narine's form with the bat has also helped him carry that confidence in his bowling and the same could be on display when KKR host RCB. Kolkata will know that RCB will be heavily dependent on Virat Kohli once again to get them to a massive score. However, the star batter has had his struggles against Narine over the years.

In all T20 cricket, Kohli has scored 162 runs off 157 balls that he has faced from Narine. However, he has been dismissed as many as four times and the KKR spin wizard will want to make it five dismissals when they face off again.