Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders: IPL betting preview & tip

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Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders
M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore

It's played four, lost four for Royal Challengers Bangalore in this season’s IPL and Virat Kohli’s beleaguered franchise face a dangerous Kolkata Knight Riders outfit in their fifth game.

The Knight Riders, powered by Andre Russell’s explosive hitting, have won two of their first three matches this term and took Delhi to a Super Over despite being dominated by the Capitals for most of the contest.

Russell has blasted an outrageous 159 runs from 64 balls this season, hitting 15 of them for six, and he should be joined by another West Indian maestro, Sunil Narine, in the Kolkata 11.

Narine missed the Delhi trip with a minor injury and he will be looking forward to facing a Bangalore side who have managed just two individual fifties in four games.

Employed as a pinch-hitter, Narine struck 24 off nine balls in his only innings this season and Russell, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana and Dinesh Karthik are also in fine form with the bat, making up for opener Chris Lynn’s quiet start to the campaign.

Bangalore have lost their last four meetings with Kolkata and they cannot be in a happy frame of mind for this fixture.

They lost a tight game against Mumbai but were hammered by Chennai and Hyderabad and last time out Kohli’s men were beaten comfortably by a Rajasthan side who had lost their first three matches of the campaign. The balance of the 11 looks all wrong and Kolkata can take advantage.

Recommendation
Kolkata Knight Riders
2pts 10-11 bet365, Hills, Sky Bet

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