Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be locking horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 United Arab Emirates (UAE) leg on September 20 at Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi. While RCB has won 5 out of 7 games and standing at third place, KKR is standing at the 7th spot with only 4 points in their bag.
Things were not going good for the Eoin Morgan-led side and they managed to win only 2 out of 7 games played in the league. Earlier, KKRThe first match between the teams took place in Chennai on April 18, 2021, and RCB won that game by 38 runs. Notably, RCB had reached a huge total of 204 runs on the board which team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) was unable to chase.
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Both the teams have stacked lineups and there will be some key player battles to watch out for in the 31st Match of the Indian T20 league.
#1 Virat Kohli vs Varun Chakravarthy
Virat Kohli facing the Indian mystery spinner will turn out to be a delightful battle as the RCB skipper will be looking forward to taking revenge against KKR spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who had dismissed Virat in the first phase of this season. Varun has picked 7 wickets in 7 games whereas, Virat Kohli scored 198 runs in 7 matches for the RCB in IPL 2021. He will be hoping for even better performance in the UAE leg of the cash-rich league. It will be interesting to see, will Virat come out on the top or will Varun manages to dismiss the RCB skipper.
#2 Glenn Maxwell vs Sunil Narine
The battle between two of the best players in T20 cricket hasn’t been seen many times. Glenn Maxwell had an exceptional outing for the RCB in the first phase of this season. The destructive batsman managed to score 223 runs in 7 games at a strike rate of 144.80. Notably, he was provided with the permanent batting slot of number 4 and Maxwell has proved his worth for the Virat Kohli-led franchise.
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In the first phase of IPL 2021, KKR spinner Sunil Narine picked 3 wickets in 4 games and conceded runs at a miserly economy of 7. Although these stats aren’t impressive still Sunil Narine can’t be judged based on stats. He has got the potential to bowl economic spells and dismiss any batsmen in the world. It will be interesting to see who will emerge victorious in the battle between these two.
#3 Andre Russell vs Mohammed Siraj
The West Indies all-rounder, Andre Russell is a game-changer and has several times annihilated the pace attack of the opposition bowling unit. Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj is undoubtedly the most improved pacer in recent times. So far the battle between Russell and Siraj are evenly matched, however, it is slightly tilted towards Siraj as he had dismissed on the very first ball in 2018, but Russell smashed runs at the strike rate of 242.9 against Siraj.
In the first phase of IPL 2021, Siraj picked 6 wickets in 7 games. On the other hand, Andre Russell smashed 163 runs at an average of 27.16 and a strike rate of 155.23. It will be fascinating to see who will come out on top in the battle between Andre Russell and Mohammed Siraj.
