(Cricket news) KKR meet RCB at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, in what is a must win match for KKR. RCB on the other hand will be looking to continue their first phase form and hopefully go on run to win their maiden IPL trophy. Brendon McCullum's side lost five matches in the first phase as this unwanted break will act as a blessing in disguise for KKR, now that the players and coaches had time to reflect on the early tournament failures, the only option for them is to start winning all the matches if they stand a chance to qualify for the playoffs.

RCB on the other hand will have a lot of new faces in the camp as Adam Zampa, Finn Allen, Kane Richardson and Daniel Sams all opted out of the tournament. RCB have recruited the world no 2 T20 bowler Wanindu Hasaranga who can be their x factor heading into the tournament, the slow pitches along with playing at these venues not long back will certainly assist RCB. One area that RCB needs to improve is its death bowling if they are to challenge for the title, after the Chennai leg the RCB bowlers have leaked 12.10 runs per over and picked up only 5 wickets in the death overs. Purple cap holder Harshal Patel and Kyle Jamieson will have a lot of responsibility to tighten things up.

KKR need their foreigners to perform to their potential if they stand any chance of qualification. They have lost their star player Pat Cummins who had figures of 3/24 when they last faced each other in the first phase of the tournament, KKR management have replaced Cummins with Tim Southee who shares a close relationship with Brendon McCullum. The West Indies duo of Sunil Narine and Dre Russ hold the key to success if they are to find a result against this in form Bangalore team, Narine holds a good head to head record against AB de Villiers as he has been dismissed 3 times in 53 balls conceding only 64 runs.

Also read: KKR is now dangerous side with nothing to lose, says Morgan

Head to head: KKR 14 – 13 RCB. The last time these two sides met, RCB scored 204 runs and won that match pretty comfortably by 38 runs.

Pitch & Weather Report: The Sheikh Zayed Stadium is mostly a batting friendly surface so it may assist the batsman again. The temperature is expected to be 34 degrees with 67% humidity and  no chances of rain as of now. The hot and humid conditions might play a key role for the spinners.

Interesting facts:

• Both Russell and Narine have strike rates of over 200 against RCB
• De Villiers has now struck three consecutive fifties against KKR
• Kohli is set to make his 200th appearance for RCB 
• Kohli is also 71 runs shy of scoring 10,000 runs in T20’s

Probable XI for KKR:

1 Nitish Rana, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Lockie Ferguson, 9 Kamlesh Nagarkoti/Shivam Mavi, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Prasidh Krishna  

Probable XI for RCB:

1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 Devdutt Padikkal, 3 Rajat Patidar, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 AB de Villiers (wk), 6 Shahbaz Ahmed, 7 Kyle Jamieson, 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal