With two wins in two outings, Royal Challengers Bangalore remain the only unbeaten side in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. A win on Sunday against former champions Kolkata Knight Riders will help Virat Kohli & Co reclaim the top spot from Mumbai Indians, who defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad yesterday. Eoin Morgan's KKR started their season with a 10-run win over Hyderabad but lost the next match to Mumbai by a similar margin.
In the battle between the world's two best white-ball captains, Morgan and Kohli, the Bengaluru franchise look to hold a slight edge over the two-time champions. Known for his tactical nous and man-management skills, the World Cup-winning English skipper will be keen to bring KKR back on track after a familiar middle-order collapse cost them the game against Mumbai -- their 12th loss in 13 matches.
Today's match will feature some of the biggest talents in world cricket. Besides Kolhi, RCB camp boasts of AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Devdutt Padikkal, etc. Kolkata have the likes of Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, Shakib Al Hasan, Ben Cutting, etc.
Head to head: KKR have a slight edge in the head-to-head count, leading 14-12 in 26 meetings. Last season, RCB had a league double over KKR.
Match and telecast details:
Match: 10th match of IPL 2021, between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders.
Date: April 18 (Sunday), 2021
Time: 3:30 PM IST
Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
TV Channels: Star Sports Network
Live Streaming: Disney+ Hotstar
Likely XIs:
RCB: Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (wk), Washington Sundar, Daniel Christian, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal.
KKR: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy.
Playing XIs in the previous match:
RCB: Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (wk), Washington Sundar, Daniel Christian, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal.
KKR: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy.
Squads:
RCB: Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Kane Richardson, Washington Sundar, Pavan Deshpande, Joshua Philippe, Shahbaz Ahamad, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Kyle Jamieson, Glenn Maxwell, Rajat Patidar, Sachin Baby, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Dan Christian, KS Bharat, Suyash Prabhudessai, Daniel Sams and Harshal Patel.
KKR: Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Lockie Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Harbhajan Singh, Karun Nair, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer and Pawan Negi.
