New Delhi: Hosts RCB will take on KKR on Sunday's second IPL match at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. Virat Kohli's side has endured a tough time in the campaign as they have lost four games out of six and lie in the bottom half of the table. KKR, on the other hand, have a win more than them and are currently fourth in the standings. The hosts will be hoping that their batting fires as a unit, which actually it has, but like every year, they have struggled with bowling. This season, RCB have been hit for over 200 thrice and lost all those games. KKR is experiencing a slump. Having played seven games, KKR have lost four games and have six points. The result of this game could widen the gap between the top and the bottom half of the table. Click here for scores:
For RCB, AB de Villiers has been in prime form this season, smashing 68 off 30 balls against CSK, and the South African maestro also singlehandedly downed Delhi Daredevils with his explosive batting.
He ripped apart Daredevils' bowling attack with an unbeaten 39-ball 90 to power his team to a convincing win. After a brisk 57 and an unbeaten 92, skipper Virat Kohli failed against CSK, and he would be eager to produce another special knock in this crunch situation.
Opener Quinton De Kock, who has scored 165 runs so far, would like to carry on with his good performance after he had smashed 53 off 37 balls in the last match. Corey Anderson and Mandeep Singh are also batsmen, who can use the long handle to good effect.
On the other hand, KKR, having lost to Delhi Daredevils by a big margin of 55 runs, will look to stage a comeback. Their bowlers first leaked 219 runs, and then the batsmen, save Andre Russell, struggled in the face of such a mammoth total.
The top guns -- Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn and Dinesh Karthik -- will again need to live up to the expectations by contributing in a big way. Uthappa (164), Lynn (191), Nitish Rana (173) and Karthik (212) have been scoring runs, twice taking the side past the 200-mark.
The Chinnaswamy strip is likely to test KKR's spinners while young Shivam, who was smashed for 29 runs by Shreyas Iyer, and England's Tom Curran are likely to shoulder the pace bowling responsibility. Australian quick Mitchell Johnson has got four games and taken only two wickets.
Russell has done a fine job for them and has so far scored 163 runs, and bagged three wickets in eight games. His brute power would be of immense use on the small and batting-friendly ground.
