IPL 2017: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, Face Off

KKR’s bowling unit must be at their best to stop the onslaught from the famed RCB batting lineup









 

Kolkata Knight Riders welcome Royal Challengers Bangalore to the Eden Gardens tonight. Both the teams enter the game on the back of differing results as the Knight Riders suffered a blip against Gujarat Lions. RCB, on the other hand, won against the same opposition after three straight losses. 

The good news for the visitors is that AB de Villiers, Samuel Badree and Tymal Mills are expected to be fit for tonight's game and finally, the Challengers will play with their full strength squad. Virat Kohli and co. need to start winning regularly to pick up the pace and join the Knight Riders in fighting for the top spots in the league. Kolkata have an advantage in the head to head with the Gautam Gambhir-led side winning 10 out of the 19 encounters. 

Extra Cover: IPL 2017: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 5 factors of winning 

Here, we statistically compare the two expected starting lineups of both the sides in order to find a favourite for this encounter. The comparison made is only based on the IPL career stats of the players with the international matches not being considered.

Kolkata Knight Riders	Royal Challengers Bangalore	Who’s better?
Gautam Gambhir	Chris Gayle	RCB
Runs – 3864, Avg – 31.41, SR – 124.93	Runs – 3563, Avg – 42.93, SR – 152.98
Robin Uthappa	Virat Kohli	RCB
Runs – 3564, Avg – 29.7, SR – 129.93	Runs – 4264, Avg – 38.41, SR – 130.2
Manish Pandey	AB De Villiers	RCB
Runs – 2064, Avg – 28.67, SR – 121.13	Runs – 3394, Avg – 39.93, SR – 148.99
Suryakumar Yadav	Mandeep Singh	KKR
Runs – 532, Avg – 20.46, SR – 131.36	Runs – 988, Avg – 19.76, SR – 122.43
Yusuf Pathan	Pawan Negi	KKR
Runs – 2858, Avg – 31.07, SR – 146.56 Wkts – 41, Avg – 33.39, Eco – 7.35	Runs – 242, Avg – 17.29, SR – 128.04 Wkts – 18, Avg – 36.78, Eco – 7.98
Shakib Al Hasan	Kedar Jadhav	KKR
Runs – 498, Avg – 21.65, SR – 130.37 Wkts – 43, Avg – 25.6, Eco – 7.17	Runs – 792, Avg – 25.55, SR – 136.79 Wkts – 0
Chris Woakes	Stuart Binny	N/A
Runs – 91, Avg – 30.33, SR – 144.44 Wkts – 7, Avg – 28.43, Eco – 9.95	Runs – 757, Avg – 21.03, SR – 128.74 Wkts – 19, Avg – 34.47, Eco – 7.53
Nathan Coulter-Nile	Tymal Mills	N/A
Wkts – 26, Avg – 21.31, Eco – 7.61	Wkts – 3, Avg – 40.67, Eco – 8.82
Sunil Narine	Samuel Badree	N/A
Wkts – 89, Avg – 19.92, Eco – 6.2	Wkts – 7, Avg – 24.57, Eco – 6.62
Kuldeep Yadav	Yuzvendra Chahal	RCB
Wkts – 12, Avg – 20.42, Eco – 7.9	Wkts – 63, Avg – 21.89, Eco – 7.9
Umesh Yadav	Sreenath Arvind	KKR
Wkts – 80, Avg – 30.34, Eco – 8.46	Wkts – 43, Avg – 21, Eco – 8.12

*Players who have played less than 15 games have not been compared.

Kolkata Knight Riders 4-4 Royal Challengers Bangalore

Kolkata have a better bowling lineup than the Royal Challengers and the visitors’ fate will depend on the form of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers.