Royal Challengers aim to continue winning run

After winning two out of their first two matches, Royal Challengers Bangalore would look to make it three out of three when they take on Kolkata Knight Riders in their next encounter at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium today.

Spin will be a crucial weapon again for Bangalore as Knight Riders showed their inability to cope with spin in their previous match against Mumbai Indians, giving away four wickets to legspinner Rahul Chahar. Royal Challengers leftarm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed played a crucial role on a sticky pitch in the match against Hyderabad as he made the ball turn and forced the Sunrisers batsmen to throw away their wickets.

With Kolkata also possessing a very strong spin bowling line-up, the performance of spinners from the two sides could very well decide the course of today’s first match. This will also be the first match of this season to be played in the afternoon and have a 2pm UAE start. Naturally, the dew factor will not come into play. On the contrary, the latter part of the match could see the ball swing as the temperature dips.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Kolkata captain Eoin Morgan, who employed his spinners to bowl five of the first six overs against Mumbai,

use spin early against the opening duo of Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal, both of whom relish the ball coming onto the bat.

In the second clash of the day, after a demoralising loss against Rajasthan Royals that saw their bowlers hand away the match from a position of strength, Delhi Capitals are likely to feature South African pace bowler Anrich Nortje against Punjab Kings in Mumbai. Nortje, who has received all-clear after suffering a Covid-19 positive scare, yesterday said that Delhi Capitals don’t have much to worry about despite the loss.

“We have got a great bowling line-up as well. It’s just about picking the right team on the right wicket and conditions. We definitely have a lot of options in our bowling line-up, which is really nice to have and hopefully we can make the best of the conditions and the different players that we have got,” Nortje said in a Delhi Capitals statement.