On Thursday at the Eden Gardens venue, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will play each other for the first time in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. This will be KKR’s first game at home. They lost their first game by 7 runs (DLS method) to the Punjab Kings (PBKS) at Mohali. After a bad start to the season, Nitish Rana and his team will try to get their first points. On the other hand, RCB is heading into this game after beating the five-time champion Mumbai Indians (MI) in their first match, which gave them a confidence boost. Fans of RCB will be happy with how well their starters, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis, are doing.
Kohli hit an unbeaten 82 off of 49 balls against MI, and RCB won by eight wickets in Bengaluru thanks to Faf’s 73 off of 43 balls as captain. The Royal Challengers hope the two experienced bowlers will do the same against KKR.
After a terrible start to the season, the Knight Riders have a lot to work on. According to DLS, their record says they lost by just 7 runs, but they never looked like they could compete with the Kings from Punjab. The KKR bowlers did not do well, as PBKS scored 191 for 5 in their 20 overs. At one point in the chase, KKR was down 29 to 3 and had to keep trying to make up ground until the end.
Rana and the rest of his team must take the first game as a wake-up call and prepare for the Royal Challenge from Bangalore at home.
Report on the weather in Kolkata before KKR plays RCB:
The weather in Kolkata should keep being good for cricket. On Thursday, there is no chance of rain in the central city of West Bengal. Fans will be happy to hear that the game will last for all 40 overs.
Players to watch out for:
Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Venkatesh Iyer will be essential players for KKR against RCB. In the RCB team, watch Kohli, Faf, Mohammed Siraj, and Glenn Maxwell. It will be interesting to see how Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy, the two spinners for KKR, do against Kohli, who has been having trouble with wrist spinners lately.
Eden Gardens pitch report:
Eden Gardens has always been a good place for hitters to hit the ball. But the pitch also helps the players who spin the ball. Due to the dew on the grass, the team that bats may want to bowl first. This is because it is hard to defend a score at night. Eden Gardens has been the site of 77 IPL games. In 45 of those games, the team that was chasing won; in 31 of those games, the team that batted first won.
