Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders will be aiming to exploit Sunrisers Hyderabad’s recent run of poor form when the two teams square off in what promises to be a high-octane second Qualifier of the Indian Premier League in Kolkata on Friday.
While KKR ticked all the boxes during the business end of the tournament with four wins on the trot, while table-toppers Sunrisers have lost four straight games.
Sunrisers will count on their bowling attack – probably the best in this IPL – to take them to the final.
But with the momentum strongly in favour of Dinesh Karthik and Co, they will need a special effort to stop the Kolkata juggernaut and return to winning ways.
First to qualify for the play-offs, Sunrisers’ slide began in Pune, when their famed bowling attack failed to defend 180 against Chennai and then went on to lose to RCB, KKR and CSK in subsequent games.
Hyderabad’s problem has been their batting, which is heavily reliant on skipper Kane Williamson, the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 685 runs at 57.05.
Their latest defeat will hurt them the most. With Chennai struggling at 97/7 in 17 overs chasing 140, Williamson asked Carlos Brathwaite to bowl the 18th. But Faf du Plessis scored 18 off that over to turn the match around for CSK.
Bhuvneshwar (9 wickets) and Rashid Khan (18 wickets) will be key for Sunrisers’ success on Friday.
Out for a ‘golden duck’ in the last match, Shikhar Dhawan (437 runs) will have to rise to the occasion but it is the middle order that has created problems for Sunrisers.
Manish Pandey (284) and Yusuf Pathan (212) have been big flops and their inability to provide the necessary muscle in the middle overs is a concern.
There will be no such headache for Kolkata skipper Dinesh Karthik, who will look to go with an unchanged XI.
On Wednesday, opener Sunil Narine failed to give the team a fiery start but Andre Russell’s 25-ball 49 not out ensured that they eliminated Rajasthan Royals.
The winners will face CSK in the IPL-11 summit clash in Mumbai on May 27.
Squads
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (c), Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson, Shubman Gill, R. Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi, Tom Curran.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha, Siddharth Kaul, Deepak Hooda, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami, Ricky Bhui, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sachin Baby, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan, Tanmay Agarwal, Alex Hales, Carlos Brathwaite, Rashid Khan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi and Chris Jordan.
Head to head
Overall: Matches – 14, Sunrisers Hyderabad won – 5, Kolkata Knight Riders won – 9
At the Eden Gardens: Matches – 6, Sunrisers Hyderabad won – 1, Kolkata Knight Riders won – 5
Key stats
- The Kolkata Knight Riders are undefeated in the two playoff matches they’ve played at the Eden Gardens. In 2014, they defeated Kings XI Punjab in Qualifier 1 at the Eden Gardens. And then, most recently on Wednesday, they defeated the Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator.
- The odds are stacked against Shikhar Dhawan, who was dismissed for a first-ball duck in Qualifier 1; the left-hander averages 11.00 in nine playoff/knockout-stage matches, and averages 18.63 in IPL matches at the Eden Gardens.
- Sunil Narine has 3 wickets in 8 in playoff/knockout-stage matches; the Trinidadian’s economy rate in these matches is 7.88 – which is in stark contrast to his economy rate of 6.43 in league-stage matches.
With inputs from PTI and iplt20.com
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