KKR have produced a superb show with the ball so far and kept RCB on the backfoot as the Virat Kohli-led side is 54/4 after 10 overs. Pacer Prasidh Krishna drew the first blood in the game as he sent back RCB skipper Virat Kohli cheaply in the second over of the match. Kohli was trapped in front of the stumps and departed after scoring just five runs. Later, the Bengaluru-based franchise lost Devdutt Padikkal (22), Srikar Bharat (16), and AB de Villiers (0) in quick succession.
Big big Wicket!
Prasidh Krishna traps Virat Kohli LBW!
Live – https://t.co/1A9oYR0vsK #KKRvRCB #VIVOIPL pic.twitter.com/317OwNVXf6
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) September 20, 2021
Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalores skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders in the match no. 31 of the IPL 2021 on Monday at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Kohli observed that the grass covering on the pitch was there to hold the surface together. The RCB skipper also believed that the pitch will slow down as the game progresses.
Meanwhile, RCB have two debutants – KS Bharat and Wanindu Hasranga, while batting all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer makes his debut for KKR.
Click HERE to check the LIVE scorecard for KKR vs RCB
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Srikar Bharat, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Sachin Baby, Kyle Jamieson, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal
Enduring a forgettable outing in the first half of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL), two-time former champions Kolkata Knight Riders would look for reversal of fortunes when they resume their campaign against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the second phase of T20 league in Abu Dhabi on Monday (September 20).
While Virat Kohli’s RCB is third in the eight-team standings with 10 points from seven games, 2012 and 2014 champions KKR are languishing at the seventh spot with just two wins out of seven ties. And Eoin Morgan-led KKR would be hoping to make a turnaround, just like 2014 edition when they won nine games in a row to claim the title.
But it would be easier said than done for KKR as they face RCB, a formidable outfit, whose captain Kohli would be gunning for success with the bat after announcing his decision to quit as India’s T20 skipper following the T20 World Cup which will be held after the IPL in UAE.
Notably, KKR leads in head-to-head record against RCB, winning 15 and losing 13 out of 28 fixtures played between the two sides, however, the 38-run defeat against Kohli’s team in the first half of the event in Chennai would be fresh on their players’ minds.
Also, the game against KKR will be Virat Kohli’s 200th game in the IPL, making him the first player to achieve the milestone with a single franchise. Overall, he is the fifth to achieve the feat, with MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik all having breached the 200-game mark earlier this season or last season.
Moreover, Kohli will aim to cross the 10,000 run mark in T20s when his team takes on KKR. The Delhi-born batsman has so far scored 9929 runs in his T20 career, and if the RCB captain can score 71, he’d become the first Indian to breach the 10k mark in the 20-over career.
