After a grand opening of the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are all set for their first clash with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on April 8 at the Eden Gardens Kolkata. With a new bunch of talents on the side, RCB skipper Virat Kohli will be looking forward to starting the tournament on a winning note.
The last season wasn’t so promising for this side as they managed to win only 3 games out 13 (one being called-off due to rain). They probably haven’t forgotten their lowest total of 49 against KKR previous year. And a year later, both the teams are scheduled to meet yet again at the same venue.
Erase old memories and witness and pure class tonight from #RCB at the Eden #PlayBold #KKRvRCB pic.twitter.com/ol6FDjqOw1
— Royal Challengers (@RCBTweets) April 8, 2018
Ahead of their first game, let’s have a look at some of the milestones which RCB players could achieve on March 8.
- With this match, RCB skipper Virat Kohli will make his 150th outing in this tournament. It will for the 83rd that he will lead this side in IPL.
- Virat Kohli needs 1 century to level Chris Gayle’s record of maximum tons in IPL. Gayle has hit 5 centuries in the last 10 years.
- Kohli needs 128 runs more to become the leading run-scorer of this tournament. Currently, Suresh Raina is leading the chart with 4544 runs in 162 matches.
- Kohli needs to hit 2 more sixes to surpass David Warner. The Australian opener has 160 sixes so far in this tournament (2008-2017) while Virat has 159 under his belt.
Eden has erupted whenever RCB came up against the hosts. Expect no less when these sides go head to head tonight. #PlayBold
Read about it over here:https://t.co/Vr4yvXYzGa pic.twitter.com/lFJEbQE9xZ
— Royal Challengers (@RCBTweets) April 8, 2018
- This game will be the 130th IPL match for AB de Villiers. It the most number of games played by a South African in this cash-rich tournament. On the other hand, if KKR picks Piyush Chawala, he too will play his 130th game and equal de Villiers’ record.
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- Umesh Yadav currently has 91 wickets from 94 games. If he picks 2 more scalps, he will surpass Dale Steyn (92 wickets)
- Yuzvendra Chahal needs 3 wickets to become all-time highest wicket-taker of RCB. He will surpass R Vinay Kumar’s tally of 72 which he picked during his tenure from 2008 to 2013.
- Wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel needs 4 more dismissals to equal Naman Ojha’s tally. Parthiv currently ranked 5th in the list of wicketkeepers with most dismissals in IPL. He has 71 dismissals (57 catches, 14 stumpings) after Ojha who is at 4th slot with 75 dismissals (65 catches, 10 stumpings).
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Here’s the full squad of RCB:
Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Brendon Mccullum, Chris Woakes, Colin de Grandhomme, Moeen Ali, Quinton De Kock, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manan Vohra, Sarfaraz Khan, Aniket Choudhary, Navdeep Saini, Murugan Ashwin, Mandeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi, Corey Anderson, Mohammed Siraj, Anirudha Joshi, Parthiv Patel, Tim Southee, Pavan Deshpande
