The 63rd match of the tournament between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The match between them will start at 7:30 P.M. (IST).
Teams Analysis:
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR):
They became the first team in this season to make their place into the Playoffs after defeating MI in their last encounter. A combined team effort has been depicted in most of their matches. In both batting and bowling, the players have been brilliant and give huge contributions in the win.
Sunil Narine has been exceptionally brilliant in both batting and bowling. He is currently leading the team in both the departments. In his batting he is the leading run-scorer with 461 runs and having a strike rate of 182.94. With the bat he has one century and 3 half-centuries to his name. Not only this, with the bowl he has grabbed 15 wickets with an economy of 6.64. Due to his fantastic performance he is the most valuable player in the team.
Phil Salt has not been less than an assaulter with the bat. He has 435 runs to his name in 12 matches in which he has hit 4 half-centuries. Not only this his strike rate helped KKR to get a destructive start and is 182.01. If he gets going then definitely will be unstoppable. Venkatesh Iyer has proved himself a saviour for the team as he scored most of the runs when the team was in trouble. Till now he scored 267 runs with a strike rate close to 150. He has two fifties to his name in this season.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer performed decently till now but has not been much consistent with the bat. He has 287 runs to his name in which he got past 50 just once. He needs to be a little more aggressive with the bat as his strike rate is 135.38, which is much less than the other batters in the team.
Andre Russell is continuing his aggressive approach in the batting as his strike rate surges to 185. He has 222 runs to his name in which he scored one half-century. Not only this with the bowl he has 15 wickets to his name but had a slightly higher economy which is 10.3. Ramandeep Singh has impressed much better than Rinku Singh as the former has a strike rate of 201.61 while the other has 148.67.
Varun Chakaravarthy has been brilliant in the bowling department with 18 wickets to his name and is the leading wicket-taker in the team. In the purple cap list he is currently placed in the 3rd spot. In the pace department Harshit Rana took the charge as he got 16 wickets till now but the economy is much higher, which is 9.72.
While the other pacers Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora had 12 and 9 wickets respectively.
Probable playing 11 for the match:
Shreyas Iyer ©, Sunil Narine, Phil Salt (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy.
(Impact Player: Vaibhav Arora)
Gujarat Titans (GT):
Gujarat is highly on the brink to be eliminated and if they lose the match then it will be over for them. So in order to be in the contention they have to win their remaining two matches. They won their last encounter which was against CSK where Gill and Sudharsan both of their centuries helped GT to get a great win. They are currently in 8th place with 10 points in 12 matches, having won 5 and lost 7.
After some poor performances with the bat, skipper Shubman Gill scored a brilliant century against CSK in the last match. He has at present 426 runs with the bat in which one century and 2 half-centuries were included. He has a strike rate of 147.40. This century will definitely give him a boost for the remaining matches.
On the other hand, Sai Sudharsan is in lethal form and is the most run-scorer in this season. With 527 runs, he is in 4th place in the orange cap list. He averages 47.91 and has scored one century and two half-centuries. He also played brilliantly against CSK where he scored a century. David Miller also looked good in the last few matches and has managed in total 210 runs in 9 innings he played.
Finishers Rahul Tewatia and Shahrukh Khan provided some healthy runs towards the end especially Tewatia who scored 188 runs till now.
Bowling has been the team’s main headache in most of the matches. Mohit Sharma is leading wicket-taker for the team with 13 wickets to his name. But his economy is 10.9, which is way too high. Rashid Khan in the 2nd position in the team with 10 wickets to his pocket till now, with an economy of 8.4. He also provided some healthy runs with the bat.
Noor Ahmed and Umesh Yadav both have 8 wickets each to their name till now.
Probably playing 11 for the Match:
Shubman Gill ©, Sai Sudharsan, Matthew Wade (wk), David Miller, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Mohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Noor Ahmed.
(Impact Player: Sandeep Warrier)
Head to Head (GT vs KKR):
They played 3 matches against each other.
| GT | KKR | |
| won | 2 | 1 |
| Highest score | 204 | 207 |
| Lowest score | 149 | 148 |
Pitch Report:
The match will be played at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. This pitch is mostly favoured both, batters and bowlers. But bowling has a little upper hand despite 4 matches won by chasing teams out of 6. Since not many big scores were seen in this pitch as compared to the other teams. Still chasing might be a better option, if they restrict them to below par score.
Weather Report:
There is a 20% chance of rain but it will not affect the match much if it happens. Otherwise it will remain sunny most of the time as the temperature will rise to 39 degree celsius and it will go down to 28 degree celsius at night. Humidity will be close to 40%.
Best 11 for the Match:
Phil Salt, David Miller, Venkatesh Iyer, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Mohit Sharma, Rashid Khan, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana.