'No fighting' is key as IPL’s oldest rivalry between RCB and KKR reignites at M. Chinnaswamy

In the first episode of the third season of the Peaky Blinders, the protagonist gangster Thomas Shelby (played by Cillian Murphy) gathers all the men in his family in the kitchen just before his wedding. Fervently smoking a cigarette with a red face, he stands in the centre of their circle and tells them all the things they shouldn’t do to prevent him being embarrassed.

 “But the main thing is… despite the provocation from the cavalry, no fighting,” he says, before going around in the circle and pointing to each face and repeating “no fighting” with increasing volume. When he’s done, a waiter carrying a drink just clips him on the back and he throws him on the ground, hurling furious expletives with the cigarette still in his mouth.

It’s pure cinema. An intense scene of an intense drama that you can’t help but watch and laugh at. And you’d feel something similar would be going on in the dressing rooms of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday, ahead of their high-octane clash in IPL 2024.

ALSO READ: IPL 2024, Match 10, Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Kolkata Knight Riders – Match preview and result prediction

It’s tournament’s oldest rivalry beginning at the same ground in 2008, also kicking off the behemoth that is the IPL. It’s mostly known for the captains’ Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli coming together after the latter’s wicket and a lot of sledging (at the same venue, again), only to be separated by another Delhi boy, Rajat Bhatia.

There's been a lot of bad blood between the teams since, but not many remember who won the game that day. KKR scored 154/8 in the first innings, but who’d remember that it all started with Gambhir’s war-of-words with Moises Henriques in the first innings, after which a charged-up Kohli missed four run-out chances, two of them difficult but two regulation ones?

The score was clearly under-par for a batting delight of a track, but the second innings was always going to be decided by emotions. KKR allowed Chris Gayle to get away with too many short balls, and he won the game single-handedly. But what went on at the other end was telling: before getting out, Kohli played out a maiden over, and AB de Villiers continued that serene momentum with a run-a-ball 22 deprived of any risks whatsoever.

The message would have certainly been sent out by the coach Ray Jennings to control the emotions and with it, the tempo of the innings. When it’s two of the most emotion-fuelled franchises in the tournament, with massive fanbases in front of perhaps the most partisan and loving crowd in the competition, the most important thing is to not get carried away.

Kohli has gained more love of late for putting up a calmer figure, but it’s been less than a year since his second altercation with Gambhir, who was the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)’s mentor at the time. That happened after the match was done, and the now-KKR mentor jumped in between a players’ issue. But again, it was RCB that came out victorious.

Friday is again set up similarly. KKR are unbeaten in the last five matches at Chinnaswamy thanks to a calming aura and tactical superiority. But home sides are yet to lose in IPL 2024.

Both teams are coming off thrilling last-over wins, and you don’t want to give up momentum after such games. Both teams have characters who can spark fire any time — Nitish Rana, Harshit Rana, Alzaari Joseph, Mohammed Siraj, Mitchell Starc apart from Kohli and Gambhir — playing in front of a crowd that has tasted the sweet blood of wins.

It’s going to be neck-and-neck and on the face. Whichever team’s players can bring out their inner Rajat Bhatia and let the tactics do the talking, would have the upper hand.