By Prakash Nair 
Raipur, May 13: Rain. Of course it had to be rain. This ground gave us a last-ball classic three nights ago. Tonight was supposed to top it. RCB vs KKR, table-toppers against a team that has won four on the bounce, playoffs on the line, full house expected. And then the skies just opened up over Raipur and had their say.
Covers went on. Water pooled on top of them. For a good while, it genuinely looked like the whole thing might be called off. Fans sitting in the stands, players stuck in dressing rooms, broadcasters filling time. The kind of delay that tests everyone’s patience.
Good news is, it’s happening. The match will start at 8:45 PM. Full twenty overs. No cuts. Just late.
Patidar Wins the Toss, Bowls First
No surprises there. Rajat Patidar called correctly and didn’t think twice about his decision. RCB bowl first.
Given what this pitch did three nights ago when Mumbai Indians batted the ball swung, the surface gripped, and 166 went right down to the last delivery you’d have to be fairly brave to choose to bat first here. Patidar wasn’t brave. He was sensible. With Bhuvneshwar Kumar holding the Purple Cap and this being his second game on this exact ground, sending KKR in was the obvious move.
Rain-affected pitch, heavy atmosphere, damp outfield. The seamers will be licking their lips.
Varun Chakravarthy Is Out. This Is a Big Deal.
The fitness question that followed KKR all week has finally been answered, and it’s not the answer they wanted.
Varun Chakravarthy hurt his foot during the Delhi game and was spotted at the team hotel walking with a stick. He has not made it. Left out of the XI tonight.
In his last five games before that injury, Varun had taken 10 wickets. Ten wickets in five games. On a Raipur pitch that was already expected to turn and grip from the middle overs. You cannot replace that kind of output with a straight swap. You just absorb the loss and hope Narine does something special.
Which, to be fair, Narine often does.
The Playing XIs and the Interesting Calls
RCB go with: Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (captain), Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Tim David, Venkatesh Iyer, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam Dar, Jacob Duffy, Josh Hazlewood.
Two things stand out immediately.
Venkatesh Iyer is in. Devdutt Padikkal drops out. Iyer is a former KKR player, popular at Eden Gardens for years, and tonight he lines up against his old franchise at a crucial stage of the season. The cricketing world loves that kind of subplot and this one is genuinely interesting. More practically, he adds batting depth in the middle overs and an off-spin option if the surface demands it.
Jacob Duffy gets the nod over Romario Shepherd. Shepherd has been below his best for weeks now. RCB have clearly run out of patience and Duffy gets his chance on a surface where his skiddy seam bowling could be effective. Phil Salt is still not back.
KKR go with: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Finn Allen, Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wicketkeeper), Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi.
Without Varun, this is a spin attack built around Narine and Anukul Roy. Narine will carry it. Roy will need to hold his end. Rovman Powell offers the kind of late-innings explosion that can change a match in three overs if KKR get a decent platform up top. Manish Pandey is still waiting for a real chance to bat, still in the XI, still patient.
The Kohli Question Remains Unanswered
Two ducks in a row. The most searched cricketer on the planet. A crowd in Raipur that will hold its breath the moment he walks out.
His last three dismissals came against a short ball from Rabada, a Test-match style delivery from Prince Yadav, and a length ball mistimed to mid-off off Deepak Chahar. Three different dismissals, three different bowlers, but a pattern emerging around his footwork against deliveries that angle in. KKR’s seamers will have watched all three back to front.
That said and this needs to be said Kohli actually scores faster opening with Bethell, at a strike rate of 169, compared to 140 when he opened with Salt. He is not short of intent. He is just going through one of those rare patches where the ball keeps finding an edge or the stumps before he settles. It happens. Even to him.
One boundary in the first three overs and you’ll see the whole mood shift.
What the Rain May Have Changed
This is the part nobody fully knows yet.
A pitch that was already expected to be uneven and grippy has now sat under covers with moisture around it for the better part of two hours. Whether that makes it easier to bat on early, or harder, depends on how well the ground staff have managed things and how the surface responds in the first over.
The pitch used for RCB’s last game here was described as a tricky batting surface by both Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Krunal Pandya, while Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene called it balanced but with plenty for the bowlers. Tonight’s version could be more helpful for batting early, with the dampness keeping the surface slightly truer, before it starts doing things in the second half of KKR’s innings.
Or it could just be a nightmare from the first ball. Raipur has that in it too.
The Bigger Stakes
For RCB, a win tonight and the playoff conversation essentially becomes academic. They’re in, and they’re almost certainly in the top two. After years of falling short, years of going deep and coming up empty, this is the kind of evening that Bangalore fans have waited a very long time for.
For KKR, this was always going to be a test of whether the four-match winning streak meant anything or was just a run of good fortune against beatable opponents. They have form. They have Allen firing, Rinku in touch, Green stepping up. Their batting has averaged just 4.5 dismissals per innings during this winning run. Disciplined. Calm. Nothing like the side that lost six games in a row at the start of this season.
But they’re without Varun. On a turning pitch. Against the best Purple Cap bowler in the tournament. In a rain-affected game that could go anywhere.
If KKR win tonight, this comeback story gets the chapter it deserves.
If RCB win, Raipur gets its second memorable night in four days, and Rajat Patidar probably sleeps better than he has all season.
Forty overs. One result. Let’s go.
Match underway at 8:45 PM IST. Live on Star Sports and streaming on Jio Hotstar.
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- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
