If we talk about fierce competition then there are very few rivalries bigger than this: RCB vs KKR. Fans have witnessed many nail-biters from these two teams over the years but the moment that ignited the rivalry came during the 2012 season when two passionate Delhi boys (Virat Kohli & Gautam Gambhir) went against each other in an intense encounter.
RCB and KKR have locked horns in a total of 24 matches so far in IPL. KKR have enjoyed a reasonable upper hand with 14 wins while 10 matches have gone RCB’s way. KKR have been particularly dominant in recent years with 4 wins out of the last 5 matches against RCB..
| KKR vs RCB Overall | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Played | KKR | RCB | No Result |
| 24 | 14 | 10 | 0 |
During the 2019 IPL RCB vs KKR fixture, Royal Challengers Bangalore hosted Kolkata Knight Riders first at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in early April. The visitors won the toss and decided to field first. Chinnaswamy deck lived up to its reputation that day and both sides put on a run-fest. After early fireworks from Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers took over and that too in a most emphatic way. Both were at their supreme best and belted the KKR bowling to all parts. Virat Kohli made 84 while South African ended up with 63 runs. Marcus Stoinis applied finishing touches and RCB posted 205 runs on the board. In reply, KKR started off in a rapid way with Chris Lynn scoring a quick-fire 43. In the middle-order, all chipped in with useful scores but Andre Russell wreaked havoc of the highest order. He made 48 off 13 balls from nowhere and brought KKR home with 5 deliveries to go.
In the return leg, RCB were put into bat again by the home side. And again Virat Kohli lit up Eden Gardens with his fireworks. This time he did not miss out on his century and Moeen Ali supported him in the act. The pair took a liking particularly of Kuldeep Yadav and scored 59 runs from his 4 overs. RCB vs KKR scoreboard: RCB posted 213 runs and the limelight was again set on the Jamaican superstar. Andre Russell did his best along with Nitish Rana but early wickets meant that KKR were always behind the eight ball. RCB won the match by 10 runs and registered their first win against KKR in 3 years.
| LAST 5 ENCOUNTERS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Played | KKR | RCB | No Result |
| 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
We are moving on to the list of individual records starting with top KKR batsmen. Andre Russell with his heroics in last two years has claimed the top position here. He has 292 runs from just 8 innings while Robin Uthappa has accumulated 268 runs from 11 innings. They are followed by the opening pair of Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine with 221 and 194 runs respectively. Andre Russell has the most impressive record from the list with an average of 58.40 and a strike-rate of 229.92.
Andre Russell has been a dominant player all over but he is particularly impressive at home. Nitish Rana also comes into the top 4 for matches played at Eden Gardens. Chris Lynn has been in his elements when plays RCB at Chinnaswamy or at the neutral venues. He has 170 runs at an average of 56.67 in away games while 215 runs at 53.75 during neutral games.
Royal Challengers Bangalore has always been considered as top-heavy team in the IPL by the experts. When we look at the table of top run getters against Kolkata Knight Riders, it is depicting the same story. Virat Kohli always saves his best for the matches against KKR. He has scored a plethora of runs against them, 674 of them to be precise. His partner-in-crime AB de Villiers is at the second position with 315 runs from 15 innings. Moeen Ali has been impressive in his short IPL career against KKR with 66 runs in just 2 innings. Parthiv Patel completes the list with 57 runs from 3 chances. Virat Kohli has the average of 37.44 from 21 innings against KKR.
Virat Kohli is at the top of the tree in all conditions but his average is comparatively higher when he plays at Eden Gardens. Also Marcus Stoinis has performed well when he got the chance to finish the innings at Chinnaswamy last year.
| TOP 4 BATSMEN (among current players) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kolkata Knight Riders | |||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Not out | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s | |
| 1 | AD Russell | 8 | 3 | 292 | 58.40 | 229.92 | 0 | 1 | |
| 2 | SP Narine | 7 | 1 | 194 | 32.33 | 200.00 | 0 | 2 | |
| 3 | N Rana | 4 | 1 | 171 | 57.00 | 164.42 | 0 | 1 | |
| 4 | KD Karthik | 3 | 2 | 77 | 38.50 | 142.59 | 0 | 0 | |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | |||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Not out | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s | |
| 1 | V Kohli | 21 | 3 | 674 | 37.44 | 131.64 | 1 | 4 | |
| 2 | AB de Villiers | 15 | 3 | 315 | 26.25 | 145.83 | 0 | 2 | |
| 3 | MM Ali | 2 | 1 | 66 | 66.00 | 220.00 | 0 | 1 | |
| 4 | PA Patel | 3 | 0 | 57 | 19.00 | 105.56 | 0 | 0 | |
The characteristics of the Eden pitch have changed significantly over the years. Kolkata Knight Riders have adapted to the new surface magnificently with changing the composition of their bowling lineup. Pace bowlers have come into the game with maximum effect but still Sunil Narine leads the pack when it comes to top wicket takers against RCB. He has taken 16 wickets from 13 innings with taking four-wicket haul twice. He is followed by Andre Russell but with a significant difference of 10 wickets between the first two places. Nitish Rana and Kuldeep Yadav round-off the table with 3 wickets each.
Sunil Narine has been more dominant at home with 8 wickets while Andre Russell impresses everyone during away matches with 5 wickets. Piyush Chawla also comes into the reckoning when they play away against RCB side. In neutral matches, Sunil Narine takes the top spot with 8 wickets from 7 innings in RCB vs KKR live.
Like all the bowling lists for RCB, Yuzvendra Chahal tops the list here also for his team. He has taken 11 scalps from 12 innings against Kolkata Knight Riders. His wrist-spin has always been the tough nut to crack for the opposition teams. He is followed by Dale Steyn with 6 wickets from 4 innings. Pawan Negi and Navdeep Saini have 6 and 3 wickets respectively against KKR.
Mohammed Siraj and Murugan Ashwin have been good in the very limited opportunities they got to face KKR at home. Pawan Negi will be having a difficult task against KKR due to the quality of left-handed batsmen in the opposition. Mohammed Siraj and Navdeep Saini should take the leadership of fast bowling cartel after their international experience with team India along with Umesh Yadav. Team management of RCB would be hoping to get Dale Steyn fully fit for the entire season.
| TOP 4 BOWLERS (among current players) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kolkata Knight Riders | |||||||||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Wickets | 5w | 4w | ||||||||||
| 1 | SP Narine | 13 | 16 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 2 | AD Russell | 8 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Kuldeep Yadav | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 4 | N Rana | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | |||||||||||||||
| No. | Player | Innings | Wickets | 5w | 4w | ||||||||||
| 1 | YS Chahal | 12 | 11 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 2 | P Negi | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 3 | DW Steyn | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Mohammed Siraj | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||