A high-octane style of cricket offers it all. It fuels adrenaline, it’s much-touted in cricket circles, and it delivers pure entertainment. But it’s also another thing: a fickle friend.
Three games into the tournament, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) know this all too well. The same aggression that helped them storm into the final last year has thrown the side to the bottom places. It started incredibly well for them. A 286-run total in their opening game gave more traction to the 300-plus target talks. But it has been an uphill battle since.
However, they might find solace in knowing that their opponent, in this game and the final last year, is not in too good a position either. In fact, none are worse than they are with their tenth-place standing. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) would not have expected their defense campaign to begin in this way. Like SRH, they have managed to beat only Rajasthan Royals in three games thus far. But unlike SRH, there is a pattern to their defeats. In both the games they lost, KKR failed to defend their targets. The only game they batted second, they won. This hints at the presence of certain asterisks next to those losses. Are these defeats merely a result of dew factors? Or do they stem from shortcomings in KKR’s bowling lineup? Their bowlers have the worst bowling average in the second innings this season (59.20). If that really is the case, KKR would want to get to the bottom of it before it does irreparable damage to their title defense.
Team Overview:
SRH’s bowling lineup has been very expensive and their batters, too shaky. This is a perfect recipe for disaster. But how can they get past it? Mohammad Shami and Pat Cummins have not really shown what they are capable of. In both their defeats, versus Delhi Capitals (DC) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), they let the teams chase the target with almost four overs to spare. This is a clear giveaway that SRH has some fixing to do in their bowling lineup.
Zeeshan Ansari bowled quite spectacularly in their last game. This could tempt them to pair him up with Adam Zampa on Kolkata’s track. As far as their batting is concerned, they need someone to anchor the innings while the remaining batters keep going bang-bang. Nitish Kumar Reddy could take on this role, or if he fails, Heinrich Klaasen can be relied upon to hold one end. And this is more crucial to their survival than their characteristic firepower.
KKR spent the highest part of their purse on Venkatesh Iyer, and by no means, was it a bad decision, given his explosive form last year. But so far, Iyer has only scored 9 runs across three matches. Such has been the case with KKR’s middle-order in general. Their No. 4 to No. 7 batters have the second-worst average among all the teams this season. Although their top-order has some brilliant power packed in it, it has been iffy so far as well.
Head-to-Head Matches:
KKR and SRH have played 28 IPL games against each other. Of these, KKR were the better side in 19, while SRH only won 8 games.
Weather and Pitch Report:
Kolkata has short boundaries and generally offers true bounce to batsmen’s favour. However, for this game, the track was requested to be more bowling-friendly. Anything over 150 should be a decent enough total. The toss-winning batter will look to bat second.
Prediction:
Both teams face somewhat similar problems, but in this game at least, KKR would find their strengths to be better aligned with the conditions, giving them an upper hand over their opponent.
Where to Watch:
India: Star Sports Network, JioHotstar
UK: Sky Sports, SkyGo
USA: Willow TV
Australia: Kayo TV, FoxTel Go
Bangladesh: T Sports, Toffee app
New Zealand: Sky Sports NZ
Afghanistan: ATN
South Africa: SuperSport
Sri Lanka: Dialog
MENA: Cricbuzz
