Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bangalore Tips: RCB side markets worthy of interest

• Hasaranga a big absence for RCB

• KKR need to bounce back from weekend defeat

• RCB's Bracewell a big price at 7/1 to be their top bat

Thursday April 6, 15:00
TV: Live on Sky Sports

KKR Team News

A defeat by 7 runs on Duckworth Lewis Stern to Punjab actually makes the match seem closer than it was.

Had the rain not come they didn't look on track to chase a big 191/5 at 146/7 with just four overs to go, especially given that Andre Russell, the one man who could have bailed them out, had got out for a typically brutal 35 off 19 just a few balls before the rain brought up an early finish.

Shardul Thakur and Sunil Narine may have just got them over the line if they'd hung around, swung for the rooftops and got a few more runs in the next couple of overs to get ahead of the DLS run rate. but I guess we'll never know.

With the ball Tim Southee, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur were all expensive, although Unesh Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy were far more economical and each claimed a wicket.

It's a concern that Andre Russell was either deemed not fit enough to bowl or else they just didn't trust with the ball on what looked like a decent surface.

The change in rules with the Impact Sub has somewhat negated the role of the all-rounder already but Russell is the man with the magic touch and they'll be seriously missing out if he doesn't bowl soon.

They also missed the raw pace of Lockie Ferguson and he may come in for Southee, here.

Possible XI: Singh, Gurbaz, V. Iyer, Rana, Singh, Russell, Thakur, Narine, Ferguson, Chakravarthy, Yadav.

RCB

So far, so good.

A comprehensive win over Mumbai has got RCB off to the best possible start. Chasing 172, Faf Du Plessis (73) and Virat Kohli made light work of the chase, Kohli (82) ending unbeaten and Glenn Maxwell finishing the job in a hurry with 12 off just 3 balls.

The one area of concern is that they should probably have restricted Mumbai to a good 20 runs less; they allowed Tilak Varma plenty of late runs when he was batting with the tail and will look to do a better job in the death overs going forward.

There's still no Hasaranga to take wickets and flow the stem of runs in the middle-overs so Kiwi all-rounder Michael Bracewell should keep his place in the side and be their chief threat with spin, although he was only given two overs on Sunday.

Reece Topley may miss the game after sustaining a shoulder injury. David Willey will probably play if he misses out.

Possible XI: Du Plessis, Kohli, Bracewell, Maxwell, Karthik, Ahmed, Patel, Deep, Willey/Topley, Siraj, Sharma.

Pitch report

We know this ground well, of course.

The iconic Eden Gardens has brought plenty of joy to KKR over the years although they haven't been able to make use of it these past few seasons, for the reasons we all know.

The IPL first-innings average score here is 161. Last year two SMA Trophy matches produced first innings scores of 163/7 and 164/7, further backing up the idea that early 160s is a par score. In the third of those, 143/8 was scored batting first.

But what those three matches also backed up was the idea that it's a chasing ground. All three were won by the side batting second and the win percentage over 81 games here is a healthy 59% for the chaser; both sides will sure want to bowl here.

How to play

KKR are 2.35/4 which is somewhat surprising given their good record here at home over the years.

But maybe not that surprising given the manner of their weekend defeat and the fact that RCB have won three of the last five between them, that KKR have won just three of their last 10 IPL games and that Kolkata's squad looks no great shakes.

Still, that record chasing can't be ignored and getting around 2.26/5 on the chasing side during the first innings is probably the best strategy to go with here.

If that's on Kolkata then that would also rank a good bet, especially with no Hasaranga around to put a break on proceedings.

RCB Top Batsman

With Kohli (2/1) and Faf Du Plessis (5/2) bossing that chase on Sunday, they're understandably short to top score again in this one.

But that may present an opportunity for Michael Bracewell. He was slated to come in at 3 the other day. In the end he didn't because Dinesh Karthik and Maxwell were deemed better suited to finish off the chase in a hurry when the skipper got out.

But they could well stick with the strategy of splitting the openers from the big-hitting duo of Maxwell and Karthik, with Bracewell playing more of an anchor role.

Bracewell had to wait a long time for his opportunity at international level and has mostly delivered. 13 fifties and a century at T20 domestic level to go with a strike rate of 133 suggests he knows what he's doing.

If he does indeed bat at 3, we'd be kicking ourselves for leaving him unbacked at that price before the Sportsbook odds-compilers cotton on to that.

RCB Top Bowler

Back in 2021 RCB's Harshal Patel took a barely-believable 32 wickets in 15 games (strike rate of 10.56) to win the Purple Cap and was good last year too, with 19 in 15 games (strike rate 16.89).

Much better numbers than rival Mohammad Siraj over the past two seasons (strike rates of 28.36 and 34). Karn Sharma hasn't played much these last two years, while dangerous though Reece Topley is, he's likely to miss out due to injury.

And there's no Hasaranga, of course.

All-rounders Maxwell and Bracewell are unlikely to bowl more than three or four overs between them. So favourite he may be, but 11/4 on such a proven performer is a decent price.