IPL 2024: Predicting 3 players who could pick up the most wickets in today's KKR vs RCB match
The last time Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) met in IPL 2024, at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 29, the latter ended a nine-match streak of home wins in the season. On Sunday, RCB will go to the Eden Gardens looking for their first away win of the tournament.
In between the two games, KKR have made gains in the top half of the table with a solid core while RCB have stumbled to the last spot after several changes to their 11. They not only want a win for revenge but to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.
Just like that game, though, this one would likely be decided by the bowling qualities and which team executes its plans better. Below, we have picked three bowlers who can pick the most wickets and thus have the biggest impact.
#3 Lockie Ferguson
Glenn Maxwell taking a break from IPL 2024 came at the worst possible time for RCB, despite his poor recent form. However, there was a small blessing in disguise as it allowed RCB to find the balance that most teams have with two overseas batters and two overseas bowlers for the first time in the season.
It didn't work out against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) because RCB's problems are more deep-rooted than that. However, the second overseas bowler, Lockie Ferguson showed promise with his two wickets in difficult conditions.
He'll carry the same threat to Eden with probably some extra motivation to do well against his favorite team. KKR's batters haven't been tested against consistently high pace yet - a skill they struggled against in IPL 2023 - despite Eden offering some extra bounce and zip for quicks.
If he gets support from his teammates, Ferguson would be a handful for KKR's middle and lower orders.
#2 Harshit Rana
Delhi pace all-rounder Harshit Rana has been one of the finds of IPL 2024 and a big factor behind KKR's success so far. He extracts so much from Eden - extra bounce due to his height, pace variations due to his dexterity, and false shots with his utilization of angles and asymmetric boundary lengths.
Even in the Chinnaswamy game against RCB earlier in the season, he was one of KKR's best bowlers, delivering a spell of 2/39 and taking the key wickets of Faf du Plessis and Anuj Rawat.
He already has nine wickets in seven matches at an average of 23.78 at the venue and is likely to add a few more on Sunday.
#1 Sunil Narine
The form Sunil Narine currently is in IPL 2024, with both bat and ball, it's only foolishness to bet against him. He'd have won the Player of the Match in the last match against table-toppers Rajasthan Royals (RR) for his 100 and two wickets had it not been for a stunning century from Jos Butter.
He has seven wickets from six matches in the season despite batters constantly trying to play him out instead of going after him. And he's yet to go wicketless in a match. Eden brings out the best in him too - 65 wickets in 55 matches at an average of 19.91. It's here that he scored his first IPL hundred and took his only IPL fifer.
RCB have had a taste of his skills too many times in the past to be complacent now. In 20 matches against them, he has 24 wickets at an average of 20.88. RCB will have to pull off something extraordinary to stop the Narine juggernaut.