A battle of contrasts takes place at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday as the beleaguered Gujarat Lions run into a high-flying Kolkata Knight Riders. While Gujarat have a 2-1 head-to-head record over KKR, things look tough for the Lions. They’re stuck at the bottom of the table and have already been on the receiving end of Kolkata’s fire, courtesy a Chris Lynn cameo when the teams clashed in the second match of this tournament. Back at home, Kolkata look set to continue their run while Gujarat need some inspiration.

Time: 8 pm

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Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN and their HD channels

Results in 2017:

Played: 1

Kolkata won: 1

Gujarat won: 0

Kolkata Knight Riders

  • KKR are on a good streak. They’ve amassed three wins on the trot since their loss to Mumbai in the second match. They’ve hold their own in tough situations and come out with heads held high.
  • Chris Lynn, who starred for Kolkata in their first match against Gujarat with a swashbuckling 43-ball 91, isn’t in the team anymore after the injury he sustained against Mumbai. While Lions will be happy, KKR have more than made up for the loss with contributions from Sunil Narine on top of the order.
  • Manish Pandey is fifth in the Orange Cap list with 221 runs with captain Gautam Gambhir at the eighth spot.

“They (Gujarat) may not have clicked so far, but that doesn’t make them a weak team.”

Kolkata Knight Riders’ Yusuf Pathan

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (c), Robin Uthappa (wicket-keeper), Darren Bravo, Ishank Jaggi, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Chris Lynn, Suryakumar Yadav, Sheldon Jackson (wicket-keeper), Chris Woakes, Rishi Dhawan, Sanjay Yadav, Rovman Powell, Shakib Al Hasan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Trent Boult, Sayan Ghosh, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot, Colin de Grandhomme.

Gujarat Lions

  • In contrast to Kolkata, Gujarat are struggling. Their only win in the tournament came a week back against the Rising Pune Supergiant. Since then they have lost three on the trot.
  • Gujarat’s form has been hampered by the performance of Ravindra Jadeja. The Saurashtra all-rounder just hasn’t been able to get going, with bat or with ball, in the three matches he’s played so far. A batting strike rate of 104.54 and an economy of 10.91 doesn’t make for great viewing.
  • The still-injured Dwayne Bravo talked highly of Kerala pacer Basil Thampi and said he would soon represent India. Gujarat will hope that Thampi puts in more inspiring performances to add sting to a weak bowling attack. 

“It’s a matter of posting one big win.”

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Suresh Raina, captain of the Gujarat Lions

Squad: Suresh Raina (c), Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Andrew Tye, Ishan Kishan, Pradeep Sangwan, Shivil Koushik, Shadab Bashir Jakati, Jaydev Shah, Manpreet Gony, Nathu Singh, Jason Roy, Munaf Patel, Chirag Suri, Akshdeep Nath, Basil Thampi, Shubham Agarwal, Tejas Baroka, Pratham Singh, Shelley Sanjay Kumar Shaurya, Dwayne Bravo.