The ninth match of the ongoing 16th season of the Indian Premier League will take place at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata tomorrow (Thursday), when the home side Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore.
RCB got off to an ideal start to their campaign this season, as their bowlers not only had the wood over a star-studded Mumbai Indians batting line-up during their tournament opener, but the star opening batting pair of Virat Kohli (82*) and skipper Faf du Plessis (73) nearly chased down the target of 172 runs together.
With Kohli emphasizing to take it one game at a time post the match instead of already dreaming of the elusive title, RCB would definitely look to get past KKR tomorrow, against whom they have won mere four out of ten matches at Kolkata.
KKR, on the other hand, did not really boast of renowned international stars in their batting order, and yet again relied on an Andre Russell special to take them home during the previous match. It will be interesting to see whether or not they go with the same playing XI tomorrow.
Eden Gardens Pitch Report for KKR vs RCB
The Eden Gardens in Kolkata has traditionally offered decent pace and bounce off the pitch to the fast bowlers. While this nature does provide them with a chance to scalp some wickets with the new ball, it also gives the batters an opportunity to play through the line and collect some runs pretty quickly.
While the batters are likely to have a day out tomorrow, the spinners will come into the picture as well, who have had a much better economy rate than the pacers at this venue in the past few years.
The average score at the Eden Gardens during the seven IPL 2019 matches was 191 runs, which makes for a potential high-scoring contest tomorrow.
Notable absentees for RCB and KKR tomorrow
RCB Left-arm pacer Reece Topley hurt his right shoulder during the previous match, and will thus miss tomorrow’s contest against KKR. The squad is already without the likes of Josh Hazlewood (injury) and Wanindu Hasaranga (national duty), with Rajat Patidar ruled out of the entire season due to injury.
KKR have been buoyed by the signing of Jason Roy, but will not be available for…
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