Former champions Kolkata Knight Riders will probably be determined to convey their flagging marketing campaign again on observe after they face leaders Gujarat Titans within the IPL on Saturday.
Having suffered three defeats in a row, the Shreyas Iyer-led outfit has slipped to seventh within the desk and the duty will get harder towards the Titans, who’ve been a revelation of their maiden season.
The Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans have been firing on all cylinders, with their batting prowess and bowling may.
Pandya pulled out of their final match towards Chennai Super Kings owing to a groin damage however it was enterprise as ordinary for the Titans as stand-in skipper Rashid Khan led the crew to a three-wicket win over the four-time champions.
The largest plus of their win towards CSK was Rashid’s sensational type with the bat as he smashed a 21-ball 40 to assist his crew chase down the goal with a ball spare.
That 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 coming off Lockie Lala’s bat 🏏😍#SeasonOfFirsts #AavaDe #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/cQT0scwirw
— Gujarat Titans (@gujarat_titans) April 22, 2022
GT’s opening mixture could not have given them the specified begin and many of the occasions the middle-order has rescued the Titans.
It was David Miller (94 not out from 51 balls) who anchored the present towards Chennai after half the aspect have been again within the pavilion with 87 runs inside 13 overs.
According to Rashid, Pandya’s damage was “not serious and there’s nothing to be worried about.”
Pandya has been in superlative type with 228 runs from 5 innings at a mean of 76.00.
The onus can be on Kolkata’s bowlers to grab the momentum and cease the Titans’ three-match profitable run.
KKR’s tempo assault led by Pat Cummins and Umesh Yadav and spinner Varun Chakravarthy (30 runs from two overs) have been taken to cleaners by the Rajasthan Royals batters of their final match.
It stays to be seen if the crew think-tank would convey again Tim Southee within the XI as the important thing lies in getting early breakthroughs and giving Sunil Narine an ideal stage to limit the stream of runs.
Narine, an important cog in KKR’s wheel for lengthy, has as soon as once more been their go-to man and boasts of the most effective financial system fee of 5.03 after seven matches.
The batters have stopped taking dangers towards the Trinidadian and he would hope that their tempo battery offers some early breakthroughs to make the duty simpler for the wrist spinner.
The sport additionally throws an attention-grabbing match-up between former KKR batter Shubman Gill and Narine.
Gill had a high quality begin to the match and scored 84 (vs Delhi) and 96 (vs Punjab) however has gone quiet since then.
As for KKR batting, captain Iyer is contemporary from a high quality 85 towards Rajasthan Royals, however he would hope their opening concern is resolved.
CALM. 𝗔𝗡𝗨-𝗞𝗢𝗢𝗟. COMPOSED. 💯@anukul06roy • #KnightsInMotion introduced by @glancescreen | #KKRHaiTaiyaar #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/1QRRsLZN90
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 21, 2022
KKR’s funding in India Test batter Ajinkya Rahane (80 runs from 5 matches; common 16.00, strike-rate 100.00) as an opener has been a giant letdown, forcing the think-tank to check out totally different combos within the final two matches.
In such a state of affairs, the Titans bowling assault in Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Rashid Khan and Pandya would look to capitalise.
Teams (from):
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), Aaron Finch, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Baba Indrajith, Nitish Rana, Pratham Singh, Rinku Singh, Ashok Sharma, Pat Cummins, Rasikh Dar, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Aman Khan, Andre Russell, Anukul Roy, Chamika Karunaratne, Mohammed Nabi, Ramesh Kumar, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Sam Billings, Sheldon Jackson.
Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (c), Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Gurkeerat Singh, B Sai Sudarshan, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Matthew Wade, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Wriddhiman Saha, Alzarri Joseph, Darshan Nalkande, Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, Pradeep Sangwan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Varun Aaron, Yash Dayal.
Match begins: 3.30 pm. IST.
