Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on Kolkata Knight Riders in a must-win match at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore tonight.

Royal Challengers Bangalore have had a forgettable start to this IPL season as they have lost all their first four matches and to stay alive in the playoffs race they have to win this match at any cost. In three of four matches Royal Challengers couldn't even put up a good fight and it's a worrying sign for them.

Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers too have been silent with the bat so far and to bring their team on winning ways they need to score big runs. In bowling Yuzvendra Chahal is also not getting support from the other end. The return of Nathan Coulter Nile should strengthen their bowling a bit.

On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders with two wins from three matches, have started well. Most of their players are in good form except opener Chris Lynn but he now has a good opportunity to play good innings against under pressure Royal Challengers Bangalore. Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik all have played useful knocks and in a good flow.

And their trump card Andre Russell has been excellent so far as he scored forty plus runs in each of the first three matches and Knight Riders camp will be hoping for another good outing from him. In bowling Kuldeep Yadav, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson etc have been average so far and if they come good then it will be a tough task to beat this Knight Riders side. 

All the major stats and facts ahead of the seventeenth match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders in Bangalore :

Head to Head in IPL - 

1 - Royal Challengers Bangalore have taken only 1 wicket in the powerplay (vs CSK at Chennai) in their first four matches - the fewest by a team in this IPL. 

4 - Kolkata Knight Riders have won all their last 4 matches they played against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL and at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore they haven't lost to Bangalore since IPL 2015. 

9 - Andre Russell needs 9 more runs to become the 8th player to score 1000 runs for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. 

15 - AB de Villiers needs 15 more runs to go past Chris Gayle's tally of 3420 runs and become a second leading run scorer for Royal Challengers Bangalore in T20 cricket.

17 - Virat Kohli needs 17 more runs to become the second Indian player after Suresh Raina to achieve the milestone of 8000 runs in the T20 format.

19 - Piyush Chawla has taken 19 wickets at an average of 24.84 in 19 matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. 

24.91 - AB de Villiers' batting average against Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL - the lowest for him against a team in the IPL. 

50 - Andre Russell needs 2 more wickets to become the first pacer from Kolkata Knight Riders to take 50 wickets in the IPL.