Bengaluru: It can’t get any worse than this. All the Royal Challengers Bangalore will hope for is one win here before they wrap up their home matches for the 10th season of the ongoing Indian Premier League. But even that looks to be a tough ask, as the Challengers face formidable Kolkata Knight Riders at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Sunday.
The Bengaluru fans who have loyally backed their team will once again throng the stadium for a Sunday afternoon fiesta, only with the slim hope of a victory.
While the Challengers are last on the league table and only play for pride, the Knights are currently third and a win here should solidify a knockout berth.
Moreover, the Knights have inflicted the heaviest defeat on RCB, bowling them out for just 49. That memory will haunt RCB when they take the field.
If nothing else, Virat Kohli’s team will hope to avenge that embarrassing loss to lift the gloom in the camp. Getting off to a slow start is nothing new for RCB, but one would have expected a better show from last-year’s runner-up who have only two wins from 12 finished matches and one washed-out game. That will also be a concern for both teams as rain has been predicted over the next few days.
The Knights too, who kicked off the season with a strong show, will step on to the field after two back-to-back losses. The Kolkata team will want to return to winning ways ahead of their final two league matches, against Kings XI Punjab and table-toppers Mumbai Indians.
And what better way to get back than to capitalise on RCB’s sinking campaign. But anything can happen in a T20 match, and one individual performance is all it takes. Though the scales are heavily for KKR, the Knight’s assistant coach Simon Katich is not heading into RCB’s ‘fortress’ lightly.
