The Royal Challengers Bangalore have been on a winning streak lately and their recent performances have been impressive. In the last four matches, they have won three, including their previous two games. They are now close to the top-4 position in the points table. The top-order batsmen have been instrumental in the team’s success. Skipper Faf Du Plessis has been in phenomenal form, scoring five half-centuries in seven innings and leading the race for the Orange Cap. Virat Kohli has also provided excellent support, and together they have given RCB some good starts. However, as the wickets start slowing down, things could get difficult for Kohli, particularly after the powerplay. On the other hand, Glenn Maxwell, who had a slow start to the season, has picked up pace and played some brilliant knocks in recent matches. His ability to strike big coupled with consistency is a rare combination to have. However, due to the top-order’s dominance, the batsmen lower down the order haven’t had much of a chance to play. And whenever they did get a chance, they struggled. Dinesh Kartik, Mahipal Lomror, and Shahbaz Ahmed have all failed to play a big inning so far. Hence, teams playing against RCB will know that they are always two wickets away from exposing a weak middle order. The seamers have done a good job for the team, especially Mohammed Siraj, who has picked up 13 wickets and is the joint-highest wicket-taker of the tournament. He has also been quite economical, and his ability to pick wickets in the powerplay is brilliant. He has received good support from Harshal Patel and Wayne Parnell. However, the spin department does not look as strong, as Wanindu Hasaranga is the only full-time spinner in the team.
The Kolkata Knight Riders have been struggling to perform well in their recent matches and have lost all of their last 4 games. As a result, they have slowly fallen down the points table and currently find themselves in the bottom-3. While some of the Indian players in their batting line-up such as Venkatesh Iyer, Nitesh Rana, and Rinku Singh have played well, some of the big international names like Andre Russell and Rahmanullah Gurbaz have been inconsistent. The team has been missing the services of experienced campaigners, Shreyas Iyer and Shakib Al-Hasan. Recently added player, Jason Roy, scored a brisk 61 runs in the last match and will be hoping to play another big innings here. It was quite strange to see Roy walk out in the middle order when he is best suited to play at the top. With some runs behind him, we hope KKR sends him out at his preferred position. The bowling department has not been in the best of form this season either. Varun Chakaravarthy has been the standout bowler with 10 wickets and has received some support from Sunil Narine (who has been economical but hasn’t taken many wickets). Similarly, the pacers in the squad, including Umesh Yadav, Kulwant Khejroliya, and Shardul Thakur have failed to cause any problems for the opposition batsmen. The bowling attack for KKR is one of the weakest in IPL 2023. The Knight Riders will need to come up with a special performance here if they want to turn things around. It’s also worth mentioning that KKR has made too many changes to its lineup and batting order so far, possibly due to the pressure that Chandrakant Pandit (KKR Coach) is under. More today ipl match prediction can be obtained from the link provided.
