High-voltage clash in offing as RCB take on Knights

Interesting battle looms between West Indians Gayle and Narine

The Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders, who played the very first Indian Premier League match here six years ago, go into their season’s first-leg match on Thursday in contrasting moods.

Spurred on by their skipper Virat Kohli’s blistering 93 (47b), Royal Challengers decimated Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets here in Tuesday’s clash, while the Knight Riders crashed to a 19-run loss during a chase of 145 against Rajasthan Royals the previous day in Jaipur. While momentum in T20 is a bit exaggerated, the convincing win at their home turf would have done a world of good to Bangalore’s confidence.

There has been an interesting pattern to contests between Royal Challengers and Knight Riders over the five editions of the cash-rich league. In the inaugural year, Kolakata won both the home and away matches while Bangalore repaid the favour by winning the two league matches in South Africa. In the third year, the two teams shared the spoils before the Royal Challengers dominated Kolkata in the next edition where they topped on both the occasions.

In the previous event, it was the turn of the Knight Riders again to call the shots with skipper Gautam Gambhir shining with the bat at the Chinnaswamy and the Eden Gardens.

The head-to-head record – five wins each -- perhaps suggests the parity in the skill sets of either unit. Batting, which has been Knight Riders’ stronger aspect, appears a bit indifferent this time though these are still early days into the competition.
In Gambhir and Manvnder Bisla, the visitors have one of the most effective combinations at the top of the order followed by the likes of Jacques Kalllis, Manoj Tiwary and Eoin Morgan. Bisla and Kallis, however, are yet to get into their groove while Gambhir and Morgan have showed only glimpses of their prowess.

The green-top surface in Jaipur combined with some uncharacteristic shots, made their batting appear far worse than it actually is, but the Kolkata batsmen may find the square at the Chinnaswamy to their liking. Lakshmipathi Balaji, the man of the match for his four-wicket haul when the two sides clashed here the last time, in all probability will return to the playing 11 and he will form a potent bowling attack with Brett Lee and Sunil Narine. Throw in all-rounders like Kallis, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Rajat Bhatia, the home batsmen have plenty to deal with.

Little significant

Challengers’ batting did come good against Sunrisers the other day despite their most destructive player – Chris Gayle – contributing little significant. While the southpaw is due for a big one having brought up two low scores, Challengers will take confidence from the fact that they were able to overcome Gayle’s early dismissal in a stiff chase. The arrival of AB de Villiers will open another batting slot for RCB if the South African is made to keep wickets as well. Saurabh Tiwary may get a chance in place of Arun Karthik then.    

As an opener, Mayank Agarwal gave the much-needed spark against Sunrisers that Tillakaratne Dilshan had struggled to provide. His uninhibited stroke-play also takes a lot of pressure off Gayle who is expected to spend as much time as possible in the middle. Moises Henriques lends a fine balance if he can come up good with the ball as well. It is also heartening to see a number of Indian pacers do well for the Challengers. R Vinay Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat and RP Singh have been impressive without being extraordinary while the spin twins -- Muttiah Muralitharan and Murali Kartik -- have been difficult score off.

As Karnataka ushers in a new year on the Ugadi day, the bumper holiday crowd will hope the sweet sound of ‘RCB’ echoes through the stands at the end of the match.