Kolkata: The city is in the grip of a heat wave, with the temperature soaring past the 40-degree Celsius mark. Afternoons, in particular, are extremely uncomfortable and the doctors’ advice is to stay indoors to avoid heatstroke and other related ailments. On such an afternoon, two teams will be heading into the Eden Gardens ground for a T20 cricket match.
The heat will be the biggest challenge on Sunday, when Kolkata Knight Riders take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in an IPL tie scheduled to start at 3.30pm.Even the most supremely fit athlete would be yearning for some respite. “It will be very challenging,” KKR pacer Vaibhav Arora admitted on Saturday, after facing the heat during a practice session. “Accept it and carry on.”
It will be a test for those die-hard, debonair fans too, who would be brave enough to fetch up and stay out there in the Sun, rooting for RCB’s Virat Kohli among others. Quite often, sports is about individuals and the former India skipper will most likely be the man in maximum demand, even though his team is struggling to stay afloat. “We still believe that if we win a match or two, we can get that momentum,” senior RCB player Dinesh Karthik said.
Kohli has been in form and KKR would want him back in the dugout as soon as possible. With 361 runs already in his bag, the veteran is currently on the top rung of the scorers’ ladder, quite ironic, given that RCB have won only one of their seven games so far. Languishing at the bottom of the table, they will be hoping for another Kohli special against KKR on Sunday. But then, like always, KKR have a plan for the veteran, Arora said. “We will be looking to get Kohli out early.”
The hosts themselves would be a little demoralised after the gut-wrenching loss to Rajasthan Royals in their last game here. Having put up a mammoth score, they perhaps believed that the match was won, till Jos Buttler stepped in to turn the game on its head.
Having had a four-day break, KKR would surely have moved on by now and would be looking to make some amends. KKR will once again bank on their foreign recruits, who have delivered when required. However, there will be furrowed brows over pacer Mitchell Starc, who hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. The Australian has taken five wickets so far, but his economical rate of over 10 remains a concern. Starc has been tasked with a huge responsibility of managing the team’s pace department almost single-handedly, with his partners (Arora, Harshit Rana or Chetan Sakariya) expected to play the supporting role. He has not quite delivered on that front till now.
KKR are aware that RCB will be coming quite hard at them and will be ready to hit back. Despite their contrasting fortunes so far, nothing can be taken for granted, except the heat.