The 10th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 will be played between, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. RCB is yet to lose a game this season as they have won both their games so far in close encounters. The addition of Glenn Maxwell in the middle order has also worked wonders, as he and AB de Villiers are in fine form.
Although the form of Virat Kohli and Yuzvendra Chahal is a bit concerning, they will be expected to perform sooner than later. With a balanced side in place, RCB will be expected to sustain the winning run. However, the Kolkata Knight Riders would have different plans. Although they started their IPL 2021 campaign with a powerful win over the Sunrisers Hyderabad, they suffered a demoralizing loss to the Mumbai Indians.
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The Knight Riders have some positive as well, with the likes of Nitish Rana and Andre Russell starring with bat and ball respectively. Much is expected of Shubman Gill and captain Eoin Morgan, who can play some dominating games. The Kolkata Knight Riders look the more balanced and well-equipped of the two sides. Although the Royal Challengers Bangalore have looked a completely different unit this year, Virat Kohli and his men will need to play out of their skins if they are to come out of Chennai with three wins on the trot.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
RCB isn’t expected to make any changes to their squad. In IPL 2020, Glenn Maxwell has been a good addition to the middle order in terms of run-scoring. In the two games this season, RCB has scored 60/3 (vs MI) and 56/3 (vs SRH) in the middle overs. Out of that, Kohli has contributed 13 off 17 (vs MI) and 14 off 15 balls (vs SRH) and hit a total of one boundary in that phase across both innings. RCB will require Virat to go harder at the top during the powerplay overs.
Probable XI: Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers(w), Washington Sundar, Daniel Christian, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
Eoin Morgan has relied on Andre Russell to bowl the final few overs in both the games so far, but against RCB it can be costly as AB de Villiers has scored at a strike rate of 221.74 over in slog overs. Russell fares much better with the bat against RCB, but since IPL 2020, he has averaged 17.64 across 18 T20 innings, with only one fifty-plus score and will need to step up in the middle-order that’s already under some pressure.
Probable XI: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik(w), Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
Fantasy Suggestion #1:
Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Eoin Morgan, Devdutt Padikkal, Andre Russell, Glenn Maxwell, Harshal Patel, Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, and Yuzvendra Chahal
Fantasy Suggestion #2:
AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli (vc), Shubman Gill, Eoin Morgan (c), Shahbaz Ahmed, Andre Russell, Glenn Maxwell, Harshal Patel, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, and Yuzvendra Chahal
