Bengaluru Blasters vs Shivamogga Lions, Karnataka Premier League 2019, Today Match Prediction 20 Aug 2019

blb vs sml Match Prediction & Analysis

KPL2019 season is entering a crucial middle phase of the league where the teams are looking to find their best combination and winning the games to seal their place in their play-offs. Shivamogga Lions take on the rain-hit Bengaluru Blasters in this game.

Bengaluru Blasters are followed very closely by the rain gods and they showed up in both their matches so far. Their last match against Bijapur Bulls ended as a tie as per the VJD method. They were batting at 29/1 at the end of 5 overs with Sharath and Nikin Jose at the crease in the modest chase. Their bowling unit performed superbly to restrict the Bijapur Bulls to 133 runs earlier. Anand D, Rohan Raju, and Bharath Devaraj joined to put an excellent partnership strangling the batsmen in the middle overs. They had combined figures of 12-0-63-4 in the match and did not give any easy runs. Manoj Bhandage and V Koushik were a bit expensive but they were bowling in the crucial final overs. Bengaluru Blasters will hope weather interruptions don’t play a big role in this match.

Shivamogga Lions are having an excellent start this season winning both their matches so far. They have defeated Mysuru Warriors by 6 wickets and Hubli Tigers by 14 runs. Nihal Ullal played an undefeated knock of 88 runs in 60 balls to take his team home in the chase of 155 runs. Pavan Deshpande and Arjun Hoysala have contributed with crucial runs with the bat for the team`s cause.  Their bowling unit has taken 20 wickets in two wickets dismissing the opposition in both matches. Pradeep T and Sharath HS lead the bowling charts with 6 & 5 wickets respectively. Skipper Abhimanyu Mithun, Rishab Singh, and SP Manjunath have also bowled well and have taken wickets consistently. Their bowlers are hunting in packs and batsmen to struggling to find a way past their bowling attack.

TEAMS PREVIEW

Bengaluru Blasters Preview

Key Players:

Rohan Kadam – Rohan Kadam missed out on the last match as he was run-out without facing the ball. He was the top run-scorer in the recently concluded Syed Ali Mustaq T20 trophy and he will look to continue to his good form in this tournament also. 

Anand D – Anand opened the bowling attack and bowled with good control and accuracy. he had match figures of 4-0-15-1 and he took the first wicket of the match early on. The opposition batsmen struggled to score freely against him. 

Stats in KPL 2019 so far:

BS Sharath -35 runs, Strike rate -103, HS -22*

Rohan Raju – 2wickets, Economy -6.5 RPO, BB -2/26

Bengaluru Blasters Predicted Playing XI:

Rohan Kadam, Sharath BR (wk), Rongsen Jonathan (c), Rohan Raju, KN Bharath, Manoj S Bhandage, Nikin Jose, Bharath Dhuri, V Koushik, Anand Doddamani, Bharath Devaraj

Bengaluru Blasters Actual Playing XI:

V Koushik, Anand Doddamani, Rohan Kadam, Bharath Devraj, Rongsen Jonathan, Nikin Jose, Bharath Dhuri, Manoj Bhandge, KN Bharath, BR Sharath, Rohan Raju

Shivamogga Lions Preview

Key Players:

N Ullal – Nihal Ullal has scores of 28 & 88* in the two matches he batted. He batted superbly the last match taking his team home in the chase single-handedly. He has also been the safest pair of hands behind wickets with 5 catches. 

A Mithun – Skipper A Mithun has taken 3 wickets in the two matches and he has taken all his wickets inside the powerplay and did not allow opposition team to build any momentum in their innings. 

Stats in KPL 2019 so far:

Nihal Ullal – 116 runs, Strike rate – 151, 50s-1, HS -88*

Pradeep T – 6 wickets, Economy – 9.4 RPO, BB – 3/22 

Shivamogga Lions Predicted Playing XI:

Raju Bhatkal, Amit Verma, Bhareth NP, Shoaib Manager, Jagadeesha Suchith (c), Vyshak Vijay Kumar, S P Manjunath, Prateek Jain, Arjun Hoysala, Srinivas Sharath (wk), Kushaal Wadhwani

Shivamogga Lions Actual Playing XI:

MD Nidheesh, Pavan Deshpande, Nihal Ullal, Abhimanyu Mithun, Arjun Hoysala, Rishab-Singh, K Rohit, HS Sharath, Prithviraj Shekawat, SP Manjunath, T Pradeep

Weather Conditions

Bangalore pitch is good for batting and the shorter boundaries and faster outfield will further favor the batsmen here. We can expect scores in the range of 160-180 runs in this match. The monsoon weather is unpredictable and as per the forecasts we have 80% chances of rain on the match day.

Toss: WIN the toss, BOWL First

Teams have chased down huge targets at this venue and no score is safe at this venue. Both captains will look to chase down the total.