Kolkata Knight Riders Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

If Royal Challengers Bangalore Bat First

Predicted score: 150

With Gayle struggling at the moment, Bangalore will have high hopes pinned on skipper Kohli and de Villiers to give their innings a cracking start. KKR will hope for Monday to be another off day for Gayle, but if it isn't, they will be chasing a total much higher than they would have expected. Rahul and Watson have also clicked down the order. For Kolkata, it will be Russell, Morkel and Yadav who can trouble the RCB batsmen with their pace. Shakib and Chawla have been good but the spinners won't get as much assistance. So if their fast bowlers manage to make early inroads, RCB could find themselves in trouble.

Our Prediction

Both teams have suffered defeats in their previous games and will look to earn a couple of points in this match. A loss for RCB at this stage could end their run in the tournament. So they will be playing under more pressure than KKR. But this is only good for them as they have players like Kohli and de Villiers who like challenges and bring out their best performance in crunch situations. Kolkata have a better balance between batting and bowling, but Bangalore have Gayle, who on his day, can bat the opposition out of the match.

Though Kolkata Knight Riders have played good allround cricket thus far, the exceptional batting firepower of Royal Challengers Bangalore makes them the favorites to win it this time around.