Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) arrived for Sunday’s showdown with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) all battered and blue. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) hammered the highest-ever IPL total on Monday and sent Faf du Plessis & Co to their sixth loss in seven matches. 

Home defeats for KKR, RCB

The Knights too come to the contest in the aftermath of defeat, and worse, both teams suffered the setbacks in their own backyards. That is where the similarities end; the contrasts in the two campaigns couldn’t have been more glaring.