It has been a dream start for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Vivo IPL 14 as they are the only unbeaten team in the tournament so far after the completion of the first week of the extravaganza. They started off with a nail-biting victory against the defending champions Mumbai Indians in the curtain-raiser.
In the second encounter against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, they looked down and out for the major part of the match but the RCB bowlers held their nerves and delivered a killer punch in the last few overs as run-scoring became pretty difficult in the final phases of the second innings.
This has been the trend in this tournament so far and it will be interesting to see if it remains the same in the afternoon match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
In the lead-up to the mouth-watering clash, RCB posted a video of their last-minute preparation on their Twitter handle where one can see all the RCB outfit practicing hard ahead of the match against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Meanwhile RCB head coach, Simon Katich feels that although KKR lost their previous game against the Mumbai Indians from a winning position, they are still a very dangerous team and they will have to be on their toes to come out on the winning side.
“We know that KKR played two very good games. They didn't quite get the result in the second game. But they did a lot right, and they are a very dangerous team.
"We know they have a lot of quality with both bat and the ball. They will be keen to bounce back. We are keen to stay on a roll. We know there's still a lot of hard work that needs to be done in this tournament,” Katich said in the video posted by RCB on their Twitter handle.
Given that this will be the first day game of the season, both teams need to get their plans right and execute them well in the match. Katich feels that it is important for both teams to get acclimatised to the conditions. It won’t be easy for both teams to play a day match in the Chennai heat.
“It’s a new challenge the fact that it’s a day game. We know that the wicket has been hard work for the batsman at times. There's spin. It's been slow. It's a new challenge, but I know this group is truly hungry.” Katich further added.