KKR vs RCB Highlights, IPL 2023: Varun, Shardul power Kolkata Knight Riders to 81-run win vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

Siraj has dismissed Narine out twice in the six balls he bowled to him. So it be an interesting battle to see between them!

In Kolkata, both sides have faced each other in 10 matches, with KKR winning six and RCB coming out on top in four occasions.

1. RCB (132/7) beat KKR (128) by 3 wickets - Mar 30, 2022

2. KKR (139/6) beat RCB (138/7) by 4 wickets - Oct 11, 2021

3. KKR (94/1) beat RCB (92) by 9 wickets - Sep 20, 2021

4. RCB (204/4) beat KKR (166/8) by 48 runs - Apr 18, 2021

5. RCB (85/2) beat KKR (84/8) by 8 wickets - Oct 21, 2020

KKR lead the head-to-head record in IPL vs RCB by 16-14. In their last five meetings, RCB have won three times.

Shardul conceded 43 runs in the first game and could be replaced by Kulwant Khejroliya, who will add more batting depth!

RCB will be without Hasaranga and Hazlewood, who haven't yet joined the squad. Also, Patidar is ruled out of the tournament. meanwhile, Topley dislocated his shoulder! David Willey is expected to feature today!

No rain is expected and the pitch is usually good to bat on but also helps the spinners!

Bishnoi and Axar have seen success here for India in the most recent T20Is here.

Kohli has been good against Indian pacers, smacking 150 off 85 vs Umesh and 67 off 42 vs Shardul. There is a chance that KKR could introduce Narine early vs Kohli!

Russell will be playing his 100th IPL match today and Narine will be in his 150th. To top it all, it is going to be in front of KKR's home crowd.

Maxwell, Kohli and Du Plessis haven't always been good against Narine in the IPL and don't have great strike rates vs the KKR veteran. Maxwell is at 101.75, with 58 runs off 57 balls. Meanwhile, Kohli is at 103.06 with 101 off 98 balls and Du Plessis is at 80, with 36 coming off 45 balls.

For KKR, Roy won't be available for this game, as he will be joining the team camp directly in Ahmedabad for their next fixture. Meanwhile, Ferguson is expected to replace Southee. Ferguson wasn't fully fit for the previous match. Meanwhile for RCB, Topley unlikely to feature, having dislocated his shoulder.

Speaking after RCB's win vs MI, Kohli said, "I wanted to mention this for a while - after MI who have 5 titles and CSK who have 4, if I'm not wrong, we are the third team to have qualified the most times to the playoffs - 8 times. Take one game at a time and try to be a balanced side which we are and we would look to execute our plans as we did tonight."

RCB were in hot form in their season opener, defeating MI by 8 wickets. Chasing a target of 172 runs, RCB reached 172/2 in 16.2 overs, courtesy of an unbeaten knock of 82 runs off 49 balls from Kohli. Initially, MI posted 171/7 in 20 overs, with Karn Sharma bagging two wickets.

KKR crashed to a defeat against PBKS in their opener, losing by seven runs via DLS method. After the match, KKR head coach, Pandit said, "I wouldn't say that experience is lacking (in the top six). Every individual has created impact at the domestic and international level and they are all reputed cricketers. One cannot be judgemental after the first game."

KKR: Mandeep Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Anukul Roy, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, N Jagadeesan, David Wiese, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, Kulwant Khejroliya, Harshit Rana

RCB: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Glenn Maxwell, Michael Bracewell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, David Willey, Suyash Prabhudessai, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Sonu Yadav, Siddarth Kaul, Finn Allen, Manoj Bhandage, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Himanshu Sharma

Shreyas Iyer has officially been ruled out of the entire IPL 2023 due to a back injury. Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan too will be unavailable due to personal reasons. KKR have signed opener Jason Roy for ₹2.8 crore who won't be availble for the RCB match but is will be available for the next game for GT.

Nitish Rana's Kolkata Knight Riders will return to their den the Eden Gardens to face the Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bangalore in what a promises to be a cracker of a match no. 9 in IPL 2023. On paper and form, RCB appear to be miles ahead but one should never count out a T20 side featuring Andre Russell and Sunil Narine.