IPL Eliminator: 'Do or Die' for Kohli-Morgan today, the team will be out if they lose
The teams of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will face each other in Sharjah on Monday in the Eliminator match of the 14th season of IPL.
Sunil Shukla 
The teams of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will face-off in Sharjah on Monday in the Eliminator match of the 14th season of IPL. This match is nothing short of 'do or die' for both RCB, who are in the hunt for their maiden title, and KKR, who are trying to regain their lost prestige. This very important match will be played from 7:30 pm Indian time.
The losing team in the Eliminator will be out of the tournament. Whereas the winning team will play in Qualifier-2, where they will face Delhi Capitals (DC), who have lost in Qualifier-1, on October 13. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have already confirmed their place in the final.
IPL: KKR vs RCB - Such is the record
So far there have been 28 matches between the two in the IPL. Kolkata has won 15 matches, while RCB has got success in 13. Talking about the last 5 matches, RCB has the upper hand, they have defeated KKR in 4.
RCB's team is full of confidence after registering a last-ball six victory against Delhi Capitals in their last league match. She finished third in the points table with 18 wins in 14 matches.
KKR, on the other hand, won 5 out of 7 matches in the UAE leg after a poor performance in the first
leg and finished fourth with 14 points.
Morgan's team secured a place in the playoffs with a massive 86-run win against Rajasthan Royals and will look to maintain their momentum going forward.
RCB reached the final in 2016 under the captaincy of Kohli, who had decided to quit the captaincy after this season. Apart from this, under his leadership, the team also reached the playoffs in 2015 and 2020. Now Kohli would like to take a grand farewell from the captaincy with the title. KKR's captain Eoin Morgan has the challenge to regain the lost reputation of KKR. The team won the title twice under the leadership of Gautam Gambhir within three years between 2012 and 2014.
... past records on the field won't matter much
But the past records on the field will not matter much and the team that performs well at crucial
times in the match will register a win.
Apart from Kohli, RCB has strong batsmen in the form of AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, and Devdutt Padikkal. Sreekar Bharat's good performance is a positive sign for the team, but the team needs to find the right combination, in which it has failed so far.
Wicket-keeper batsman Bharat scored an unbeaten 78 off 52 balls in the last match of RCB and hit the winning six off the last ball. However, Maxwell has played an important role for RCB. This Australian batsman has scored 498 runs this season. However, Kohli needs to play big innings.
Harshal Patel has given a sensational performance in bowling. He took 30 wickets in 14 matches, including a hat-trick against Mumbai Indians. Mohammad Siraj and George Garten have been impressive, while Yuzvendra Chahal has given a befitting reply to his critics with 16 wickets.
KKR bowlers have done well
The bowlers have also played a good role from KKR's side. Loki Ferguson and Shivam Mavi have returned to form in time, while spinners Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, and Shakib Al Hasan have been impressive.
Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, and Nitish Rana have done well with the bat, and it remains to be seen how they face Patel and Chahal on the slow pace of Sharjah.
The teams are as follows -
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (captain), Navdeep Saini, Glenn Maxwell, Dan Christian, Rajat Patidar, Dushmant Chamira, Pawan Deshpande, Mohammad Siraj, Harshal Patel, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sachin Baby, Wanindu Hasaranga, George Garten, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Devdutt Padikkal, Kyle Jameson, Suyash Prabhudesai, KS Bharat, Tim David, Akash Deep, AB de Villiers.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Eoin Morgan (Captain), Dinesh Karthik, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Karun Nair, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Shubman Gill, Harbhajan Singh, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Loki Ferguson, Pawan Negi, M Pranand Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Dubey, Tim Southee, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakraborty, Andre Russell, Ben Cutting, Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Sheldon Jackson, Tim Seifert.
