Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will have an encounter at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. KKR is presently at 7th and LSG is at 3rd in the list of points table.
Both the teams will definitely want to win the match so that they can have their chance for the playoffs. Lucknow has 15 points in 13 matches and a win over Kolkata will definitely secure their place in playoffs. Whereas Kolkata need to depend on other results too if they win the match and to secure a seat in playoffs. They have 12 points in 13 matches but their negative run rate needs to be improved.
Knight Riders got their perfect opening combination but their performance came individually. When Jason Roy strikes Rahmanullah Gurbaz gets out early and vice- versa. Jason Roy joined the team a little late due to which he only played 7 matches. So as Gurbaz also he only played 10 matches. But in the last match both of them need to contribute well.
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Quinton de Kock shows good knocks in the opening and he surely refills the place of KL Rahul. He played 3 matches and made 115 runs. Kyle Mayers didn’t play the last match but he had a great record for the team. He is 2nd highest scorer for the team and made 361 runs.
Venkatesh Iyer after his century did not contribute much to the team. He was having a great season in the first half, in the second half he was little inconsistent with the form. Nitish Rana who started the season with strings of low scores or wasn’t able to convert into a big one. Then afterwards he started scoring well and is 2nd highest scorer for the team and made 405 runs.
Super Giants struggled a little in the middle order batsman. Prerak Mankad showed his brillancy against SRH. Krunal Pandya showed his determination of batting in the last match against MI, where he scored 49 runs in 42 balls. Marcus Stoinis is the main hero for their last win who scored 89 runs in 47 balls. He is also the leading run scorer for his team and contributed 368 runs.
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Rinku Singh who emerges not only as a great finisher but also knows how to play in each position. When the team struggled then he and Rana contributed to a strong partnership due to which they were able to win the match against CSK in a slow track. He is leading the team in terms of runs and made 407 runs. Andre Russell also gets his form in the last few matches and the team is expecting once again that he will show his destruction in the death overs.
Nicholas Pooran is definitely a pure form of destruction and he already showed against SRH. In this season he goes with a heavy strike rate of 170.45 and he goes on hitting then the ground will look small. Ayush Badoni can also hit well but this year his performance is not up to the mark.
Looking at the bowling of Kolkata their spinners are the only reason for their win and wicket taking ability. None of the pacers showed any match winning performance. Varun Chakaravarthy led the group with 19 wickets in his pockets. Suyash Sharma’s economical spells along with some crucial wickets in between the overs helps the team. Sunil Narine must be relieved after his great bowling performance against CSK where he took 2 wickets by giving away only 15 runs in his spell.
Lucknow has seen little injuries this season. Mark Wood who got injured earlier after playing for only 4 matches. Ravi Bishnoi is the highest wicket taker from the team and grabbed 14 wickets till now. Krunal Pandya’s performance in the last two matches in this department was considerably much better than before. He took 8 wickets till now. Yash Thakur and Mohsin Khan show their match winning performance against MI in the death overs.
Head to Head (KKR vs LSG):
Matches- 2
| KKR | LSG | |
| WON | 0 | 2 |
| HIGHEST SCORE | 208 | 210 |
| LOWEST SCORE | 101 | 176 |
Pitch Analysis:
Both the teams will meet at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. This ground is famous for high scoring matches. But KKR couldnt utilize much of their home advantage here. Spinners get better results and economy than pacers.
Probable playing 11 for KKR:
Jason Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana ©, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora.
Probable playing 11 for LSG:
Quinton de Kock (wk), Kyle Mayers, Prerak Mankad, Krunal Pandya ©, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Yash Thakur, Mohsin Khan.
Best 11 for the match (predicted):
Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Jason Roy, Nitish Rana, Kyle Mayers, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi.