Perennial underachievers Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on the two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders in the sixth match of IPL 2022. The contest will be played at Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium.
RCB started their IPL 2022 on a losing note after being outdone by Punjab Kings by five wickets. They failed to defend a solid total of 206 and will be looking to get off the mark in the next game against the Knight Riders.
KKR, on the other hand, won their opening game of the season comprehensively. They beat CSK by six wickets after allowing them only 131 in the first innings and then chasing it down effortlessly.
RCB vs KKR – Head to head total
RCB and KKR have played a total of 30 IPL games between them. KKR have an upper hand with 17 wins, while RCB have won 13 games. In the last five meetings between the two, RCB lead the head to head total 3-2.
The highest score posted by RCB against KKR is 213, while the highest score posted by KKR against RCB is 222. The lowest total posted by both teams against each other is 84 (KKR) and 49 (RCB).
Injury update and team news
RCB – Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood will not be playing this game. While Maxwell has opted out of the first few games due to personal reasons, Hazlewood is busy with the ODI series against Pakistan.
KKR – Aaron Finch and Pat Cummins, both of whom are playing the ODI series against Pakistan, will be unavailable along with Tim Southee.
Probable XI for both the teams
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Sherfane Rutherford, Dinesh Karthik (wk), David Willey, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Sam Billings, Andre Russell, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Sunil Narine, Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
Two players to watch out for from both teams
RCB –Faf du Plessis and Mohammed Siraj
For CSK, the two players that could be match-winners are opening batsman and captain Faf du Plessis and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj. Du Plessis got off to a great start to IPL 2022 with an 88 off 57 in the opening fixture. The South African was also in great form last year when he scored 634 runs at an average of 45 and strike rate of 138.
Siraj, on the other hand, picked 11 wickets last year at 6.79 runs per over. Although he was a bit expensive in this season’s opener, he picked up two wickets. The pacer overall has
KKR – Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer
New skipper Shreyas Iyer is a sensational T20 batsman. He recently scored three successive fifties in the home series against Sri Lanka and will be looking to do something similar for his new IPL franchise.
All-rounder Venkatesh Iyer, who was KKR’s best performer in the second leg of IPL 2021, is another player to watch out for. Iyer can pick up wickets in the middle overs and also score brisk knocks at the top. He scored 370 runs in 10 matches last season at an average of 41.11 and a strike rate of 128.47.
Who will win the match between RCB and KKR?
Although RCB come into this game on the back of a loss, it can be noted that they played good cricket in their previous encounter. The batsmen did a good job to score in excess of 200 and the bowlers also fared decently. KKR, on the other hand, won their tournament opener comprehensively with both their batsmen and bowlers delivering. Although it is tough to predict a winner for this game, Betwala will put their money on Shreyas Iyer’s KKR.
Where to watch the RCB vs KKR IPL 2022 match in India?
The RCB vs KKR IPL 2022 match can be watched on the Star Sports Network in India on March 30 at 7.30 PM IST. You can also watch the match online on the Hotstar app.
Image credit: IPL
