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Match Details
Date: September 20, 2021
Time: 7:30 PM (IST)
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Live Ball-by-Ball Commentary: SportsTiger App
Preview:
Fasten your seat belts, cricket lovers! While the Indian T20 League is set to resume with arguably the most celebrated rivalries of the tournament between Chennai and Mumbai, Day 2 of the UAE-leg of the competition will see Kolkata take on Bangalore. 13 years ago, these were the same two teams who had played the first-ever match of the tournament which changed the face of Indian and T20 cricket. In the fourteenth edition of the competition, eyes will yet again be on the same two teams to produce a spectacle of a clash for their fans who had to unexpectedly wait for four months to witness the remaining matches.
The two teams have already met once in this season of the tournament in April and at that time it was the Virat Kohli-led side that had emerged victorious by 38 runs. However, a lot has changed since then and Kolkata would hope that there is a change in the result as well in the reverse fixture. Opting to bat first, Bangalore had scored 204/4 thanks to a superb partnership from Glenn Maxwell (78 off 49) and AB de Villiers (76 off 34). Bangalore then bowled out Kolkata for 166/8 with Kyle Jamieson picking up three wickets.
A look at the points table suggests that Kolkata are no competition to Bangalore as the latter have five wins from seven matches with the Men in Purple only having two wins to their credit. However, with several match-winners in their side and a World Cup-winning captain at their helm, Kolkata fans would hope that they somehow find their way to the Playoffs despite being placed at the 7th position for now. After all, it is their anthem that says it all for them!
Position in the Indian T20 League standings:
Kolkata: Current Position: 7th (4 points in 7 matches)
Bangalore: Current Position: 3rd (10 points in 7 matches)
Team News
Kolkata:
Kolkata's Pat Cummins opted not to travel to UAE for the second leg of Indian T20 League. Consequently, Tim Southee has been named as his replacement. Other than that, the side has all their key players fit and available for selection.
Bangalore:
Bangalore have the maximum number of replacements for the second half of the season. Here is a look at the changes in their overall squad from their last match earlier this year.
IN: Wanindu Hasaranga, Dushmantha Chameera, George Garton, Tim David, Akash Deep
OUT: Adam Zampa, Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson, Finn Allen, Washington Sundar
No reported injury or availability concerns as of now from their squad.
Head to Head (in Indian T20 League)
Matches Played – 27
Kolkata – 14
Bangalore – 13
Key Players
Glenn Maxwell:
All eyes will be on 'Big Show' Glenn Maxwell. A good reason for Bangalore's success in the first half of the competition was that Maxwell fired for them. He, in fact, ended the first half as their leading run-getter with 223 runs in 6 innings at an average of 37.16 and a strike rate of 144.80. Maxwell had that liberty in the team to go for his strokes since there were other players of the stature of Kohli and AB de Villers already in the squad and he did exactly that which has provided a great balance to their squad.
Nitish Rana:
Nitish Rana tends to get a big score early on and then gradually slow down as the tournament progresses. A fresh start could be a blessing in disguise for him since a big knock in the first few matches here would meant that the team will get the momentum that they seemed to be lacking in the first half. The southpaw has 201 runs in 7 innings and would look to bat with more consistency once their season resumes on September 20.
Probable Playing XI
Kolkata:
Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Shakib Al Hasan, Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
Bangalore:
Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (c), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal