IPL 2023 Match 9 KKR vs RCB | Fantasy Tips, Prediction & Preview

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) started this season with a good win where as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) lost their first match. KKR will be looking for their first win while RCB will try to continue their winning moment as they will take each other to Eden Gardens stadium, Kolkata for match 9 of IPL 2023 this Thursday.

RCB played Mumbai Indians in their opening game while KKR played against Punjab Kings. KKR lost their first game by 7 runs (D/L Method). They have to make improvements in their bowling as well as batting to give tough competition to RCB who recently won their first match by successfully chasing 172 run target. Bangalore's batters are in good form as they gave a top performance in their first game. Faf and Virat Kohli's 148 runs partnership off 89 balls was enough to get their team a comfortable win.

Royal Challengers has won three of their last 5 matches against the Knight Riders. Even at Eden Gardens, RCB has won three out of the last five games. These two teams have a history of rivalry as RCB had its lowest total of 49 runs against KKR in 2017.  

Since the tournament has just started and it is just the first week, both the teams would be aiming to get early victories to stay at a comfortable position on the points table from starting itself.

Match Timings

Match Toss Time - 19:00 IST (13:30 GMT)

Match Start Time - 19:30 IST (14:00 GMT)

Match Venue - Eden Gardens Stadium, Kolkata, India.

Head to Head

Matches Played: 30

KKR won - 16        RCB won - 14

Last 5 Meetings

KKR won - 2          RCB won - 3

Weather Conditions and pitch

Team News

Injury is making it quite difficult for KKR to build a strong playing XI. First, captain Shreyas Iyer had been ruled out of this season, and now Shakib Al Hasan. Lockie Ferguson is also injured and Litton das to replace him, KKR has just 5 international players in their camp. It is a difficult task for new captain Nitish Rana to take this team forward in the absence of some big players.  

RCB have suffered a major blow, as their star batter Rajat Patidar has been ruled out of this IPL season due to injury. He was the third-highest run scorer for RCB last year scoring 333 runs in 7 innings at a strike rate of 152.75. Royal Challengers will also be missing Reece Topley due to an injury he faced during the first match. He will be there with the team but is likely to miss the game against KKR.

Probable Playing XI

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) - Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), N Jagadeesan (wk) Nitish Rana (C), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Venkatesh Iyer, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakarvarthy.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) - Virat Kohli, Faf Du Plessis (C), Glenn Maxwell, Michael Bracewell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik (wk), David Willey, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Karn Sharma, Mohammed Siraj.

Must Picks

RCB - Looking at their current form and how they both played in the last match, Virat Kohli and Faf Du Plessis are the two must-picks and the key players from Bangalore's squad.  

KKR - Andre Russell and Sunil Narine will be the key players from Kolkata's team. The round performance of both players made them very important for KKR. Looking at Andre Russell's strike rate, it is clear that he is a destructive batter and a must-pick player.

KKR vs RCB fantasy team

Captain and Vice-Captain Picks

Prediction

Seeing the performance of both teams in their first game, it is clearly an advantage for RCB over KKR. Also looking to the last 5 games between these two teams, RCB has some advantage as they won 3 matches out of 5. Bangalore has a good record on Eden Gardens as well. KKR may have lost their first game but being on their home ground they can get some advantage. Andre Russell loves to bat against Royal Challengers, so he can be the difference.

Sportco predicts Royal Challengers Bangalore to beat Kolkata Knight Riders in match 9 of IPL 2023.

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