Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore - Match Preview

🏏 6 April 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

Eden Gardens is always ‘box-office’ and when Indian Premier League (IPL) action returns with Kolkata Knight Riders hosting Royal Challengers Bangalore, the full house is going to make it exciting for every cricket lover. It is still early days in IPL 2023, but both sides are going to go for a win at all costs.

KKR need a victory to kickstart their campaign after their season started with a seven-run loss by the DLS method to Punjab last Saturday. The match result could have been so different if they hadn’t lost two wickets in their last eight balls before the heavens opened up after 16 overs. Yet, the loss seemed a fair result as Kolkata were never in control of the 192-run chase with only a handful of 30s all around including a characteristically belligerent 35 off 19 by Andre Russell.

A good start could go a long way in giving them a head-start and KKR would lean back on history to gain that advantage; they posted the highest powerplay score in five of their last seven matches against RCB at this venue. That would help stand-in skipper Nitish Rana earn his stripes as the home team get to digest the fact that regular captain Shreyas Iyer will now miss the entire tournament.

RCB do not have any such issues, and not on the captaincy front as Faf du Plessis led his side admirably to an eight-wicket win over Mumbai Indians at home last Sunday. The long flight from down south to far east should give them enough time to work out if the comprehensive win led by Faf (82* off 49) and Virat Kohli (73 off 43) is a blessing or a missed chance to see how their middle order fares.

That may not keep Glenn Maxwell on his toes as the right-handed swashbuckler has scored six 30+ scores in his last 12 matches against KKR including two fifties. They have an immediate concern to address on the bowling front, as Reece Topley dislocated his shoulder in the match against Mumbai and will miss this fixture. An immediate replacement could be David Willey, who is yet to make a mark in this tournament after failing to take a wicket in four of his last five IPL matches.

📋 Key battle: Sunil Narine loves playing RCB with the Kolkata mystery spinner boasting three four-wicket hauls against, which is the most by any bowler against the Bangalore franchise. As a powerplay bowler, his next tussle could be against Virat Kohli, who scored 100 when he last played KKR at this venue and has five 30+ scores in his last eight H2Hs here. The H2H battle has always been intense with the record reading: 50/1 off 52 balls @ 5.76rpo at Eden Gardens.

⚡ Stat attack: Among the 2023 venues that hosted IPL matches in 2022, Eden Gardens had the highest powerplay average of 58.

• KKR have hit the most 6s in nine of their last ten matches at this venue, tying the count in the other.
• Andre Russell has scored 395 runs against RCB in 13 innings at an average of 43.89 and SR of 12.47rpo.
• Russell vs Harshal Patel in IPL: 35/2 off 26 balls @ 8.07rpo (3x6).
• Umesh Yadav to Glenn Maxwell in IPL: 3/17 from 19 balls!
• RCB have posted the highest opening partnership of the match in seven of their last ten H2Hs.
• One area Bangalore may struggle is on the sixes count, as they conceded the most match 6s to Kolkata in seven of their last eight H2Hs.
• Chasing could be the way to go for RCB as 11 of their 14 H2H wins have come while doing so.