What

Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders play their second match of Pepsi IPL 2015 when they clash with the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

KKR will be keen to maintain the momentum the team established with their victory over the Mumbai Indians in the inaugural fixture of the season. The title holders wasted little time in imposing themselves on the opposition in that opening contest and that is something they will want to do on a consistent basis.

Royal Challengers Bangalore play their first match of the season. The franchise didn’t have the greatest of times last season – winning only five of their 14 league fixtures and finishing 7th in the standings. The franchise have maintained all their key players, but have made a few exciting additions to their lineup at the Pepsi IPL 2015 Player Auction. They have bolstered their bowling line-up with the likes of Adam Milne and Sean Abbott, and have signed up experienced heads like Dinesh Karthik, Darren Sammy and S Badrinath. Under the flamboyant Virat Kohli, the team will be keen to leave the past behind and make a fresh start all over again. The captain had some very inspiration words for his team when he called on his teammates to “enjoy playing for RCB, enjoy the game thoroughly and play cricket as a unit”

When

11 April 2015, 8p.m. IST

Where

Eden Gardens, Kolkata

The Protagonists

Over the past year the Kolkata Knight Riders have successfully applied the formula of one of their openers preferably batting into the second half of the innings. The onus therefore will lie on the shoulders of skipper Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa or Manish Pandey to set a platform so the explosive middle-order can then close the innings with a flourish. On the bowling front, Morne Morkel impressed in the season opener, clocking speeds in excess of 140kph consistently and generating steep bounce, and he will be expected to keep the lid on a formidable RCB batting lineup. Sunil Narine will continue to be a key factor too; the Trinidadian appeared rusty in the match against MI, but one can expect him to be on top of his game this time around.

Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers can individually win matches on any given day and hence will be the key personnel in RCB’s batting plans. On the bowling front, the team will miss the services of Mitchell Starc, who has been ruled out because of a knee injury. However, in Varun Aaron who has bowled quick in recent times, Sean Abbott and Adam Milne, they have a pace battery that can trouble the best in business.

Contests to look-forward to

KKR’s Morne Morkel running in to bowl to RCB’s AB de Villiers, who is one of the few players who can score in every area of the cricket ground, promises to be a mouth-watering contest. de Villiers’ assault on yet another of his South African teammate – Dale Steyn – in is now stuff of folklore. It will be interesting to see if Morkel can find a way to keep the dangerous de Villiers quiet.

Previous Meetings

The rivalry between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore dates back to the opening match of the IPL, when the former registered a thumping 140-run victory. Since then, the two teams have met on 13 other occasions with the honors split 7 to KKR and 6 to RCB.

Recent history too is lop-sided in favour of KKR who have prevailed in each of their last three matches against RCB.

Trivia

RCB do not have a great record while playing at Kolkata. They have managed just one win in five visits to the venue previously.

Chris Gayle scored the first of his four IPL centuries at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. He scored an unbeaten 102 off 55 balls against the home team in 2011.

Sunil Narine boasts of an impressive career economy rate of 5.46 in T20 cricket. In the five IPL matches he has played against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, that number improves further – to a miserly 4.35.

What Next

Kolkata Knight Riders will be out of action for six days before their next fixture – an away clash against Kings XI Punjab in Pune on April 18. Virat Kohli’s RCB head to Bengaluru after this fixture and play their first home fixture of the season when they host Sunrisers Hyderabad on 13 April.