Kolkata Knight Riders vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore: 35th IPL Match Preview

Prasenjit Dey gives his preview for Friday's 35th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Kolkata Knight Riders vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore: 35th IPL Match Preview
SPECIAL OFFER

Get 25% OFF

Dominate your NFL Draft this season with limited time offer. Use promo code PURPLE
PROMO CODE PURPLE

Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore will have everything to fight for when they take each other on at the Eden Gardens on Friday night. Things haven't quite gone right for Kolkata in the last three matches. They were sitting pretty at the top of the table with four wins in five matches. They have, however, lost three consecutive matches to drop down to sixth on the league table. Two of those losses have come at home and that leaves them with some catching up to do when they take on Kohli and Co. next at the same venue.

Having said that, Bangalore have their share of struggles to deal with as well. They are right down at the bottom of the table with only one victory in eight matches. They need to win all of their remaining six matches to have an outside chance of qualifying for the playoffs. It seems to be an improbable task but Rajasthan did it last year. So, RCB will be hoping on hope as well.

Both teams have some concerns at the bowling front. They don't have the best of bowling attacks in the league. Moreover, on a pitch favoring batsmen, we may see both batting units go on the rampage. Andre Russell didn't click in the last couple of games for Kolkata and the result was there to be seen. They, however, may need to deal with his absence in this match as he was hit by a bouncer during practice

Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore will have everything to fight for when they take each other on at the Eden Gardens on Friday night. Things haven't quite gone right for Kolkata in the last three matches. They were sitting pretty at the top of the table with four wins in five matches. They have, however, lost three consecutive matches to drop down to sixth on the league table. Two of those losses have come at home and that leaves them with some catching up to do when they take on Kohli and Co. next at the same venue.

Having said that, Bangalore have their share of struggles to deal with as well. They are right down at the bottom of the table with only one victory in eight matches. They need to win all of their remaining six matches to have an outside chance of qualifying for the playoffs. It seems to be an improbable task but Rajasthan did it last year. So, RCB will be hoping on hope as well.

Both teams have some concerns at the bowling front. They don't have the best of bowling attacks in the league. Moreover, on a pitch favoring batsmen, we may see both batting units go on the rampage. Andre Russell didn't click in the last couple of games for Kolkata and the result was there to be seen. They, however, may need to deal with his absence in this match as he was hit by a bouncer during practice session today. RCB depend a lot on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers as well and they would want them to fire in this all important encounter.

Weather and Pitch conditions: Weather will remain clear. Pitch will be slightly drier as compared to previous match. So, it should assist the spinners better. Pacers will have a hard time bowling. Batsmen should dominate them.

Player Recommendations:

Wicket-keeper: Parthiv Patel

The Gujarat southpaw has been consistently getting his team off to good starts. He has scored a couple of fifties and has a chance to add one more to his rally against Kolkata's bowling lineup.

Batsman: Chris Lynn

Lynn showed what he is capable of in the previous match against the Super Kings with a fabulous innings of 82 off just 51 deliveries. Against a weak RCB bowling unit, he should be at his best once again.

All-Rounder: Sunil Narine

The Caribbean wizard is back on his bowling form. He picked up two wickets in the last match. Moreover, he has a good batting record against RCB. So, we may see him going big with both bat and ball.

Bowler: Piyush Chawla

Chawla has continued to perform quietly. He is getting wickets almost regularly and the dry track will suit his kind of bowling. He has a chance of getting batting time under his belt also as he bats at No. 8. He finds himself amongst the catches also in the field.

Uncapped Player: Navdeep Saini

Bangalore's Navdeep Saini has impressed one and all this season with his 150 Kph thunderbolts. He has a good economy rate and has started to get wickets regularly as well. He has been named as a standby for India's World Cup squad and that in itself is a big endorsement for this young talent.

Captain: Sunil Narine

Vice-Captain: Virat Kohli

Predicted Playing XI:

KKR: Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Shubman Gill, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Harry Gurney

RCB: Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Marcus Stoinis, Moeen Ali, Akshdeep Nath, Pawan Negi, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj

Want to Read More?
Subscribe to RotoWire to see the full article.

We reserve some of our best content for our paid subscribers. Plus, if you choose to subscribe you can discuss this article with the author and the rest of the RotoWire community.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prasenjit Dey writes about fantasy sports for RotoWire
RotoWire Logo

Continue the Conversation

Join the RotoWire Discord group to hear from our experts and other Cricket fans.

Top News

Tools

NFL Draft Kit Logo

NFL Draft Kit

Fantasy Tools

Don’t miss a beat. Check out our 2025 NFL Fantasy Football rankings.

Related Stories

Betting Latest