IPL 2018: RCB vs KKR Preview: Playing 11s, Timings, Live Streaming & More

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Bengaluru, April 28: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the protagonists of Sunday's (April 29) clash, seemed to have taken a share cab in the route of struggles.

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RCB are sixth on the table with four points from six matches while KKR are fourth on the table with six points from as many matches. But in reality, there is nothing much that separate both the teams.

Opening woes of RCB, KKR

Both RCB and KKR have been haunted by struggles atop. Their openers have not given them a good, consistent start in this edition of the IPL. While the RCB openers have made 324 runs at a strike rate of 137.29, the KKR batsmen at totem pole position have contributed 302 runs at a strike rate of over 146.

In that context, both RCB and KKR openers will have to fire to give their respective teams a foundation solid enough for the middle order to cash in on.

Bowling worries

RCB and KKR have bowlers in their ranks who have taken a good number of scalps. Chris Woakes and Umesh Yadav have been among wickets for RCB while Sunil Narine has filled his wicket coloumn for KKR. But RCB and KKR have not really been efficient when it comes to stem the run flow either while setting or chasing a target.

And these two fragile bowling units will be heading to M Chinnaswamy stadium - a strong ally of batsmen. In that context, they will perforce require to up their game on Sunday.

Soothing point

RCB: The form of AB de Villiers. The South African genius has made two successive 50s against Daredevils and Super Kings - though with contrasting results - and will shoulder the hopes of RCB once again.

KKR: The West Indian duo of Sunil Narine and Andre Russel have been contributing consistently with bat and ball and the Kolkatans will need them firing on all cylinders against RCB.

The pitch factor

The Chinnaswamy pitch is often loaded with runs and there is no reason to expect an exception on Sunday. And the team winning toss could insert the opposition in the belief that no total is safe in this venue. Ask CSK for a clarification.

Weather

The barometer is set at 31 degrees in the evening on Sunday in Bengaluru with no prediction for sustained rain. But it has been cloudy and drizzling in the city over the last couple of days, particularly in the evening. You may just see a brief spell of showers, perhaps, only to cool down the heat of competition.

Teams (from): RCB: Virat Kohli (Captain), AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan, Brendon McCullum, Chris Woakes, Colin de Grandhomme, Moeen Ali, Quinton de Kock, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manan Vohra, Kulwant Khejroliya, Aniket Choudhary, Navdeep Saini, Murugan Ashwin, Mandeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi, Mohammed Siraj, Parthiv Patel, Aniruddha Joshi, Pavan Deshpande, Tim Southee, Corey Anderson.

KKR: Dinesh Karthik (Captain and WK), Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson, Shubman Gill, R Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi, Tom Curran.

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