The Indian Premier League is heading towards the end game. Every team has switched to survival mode now. The two-time title winners Kolkata Knight Riders will play against Shikhar Dhawan’s Punjab Kings. The match will be held at the renowned stadium, Eden Gardens.
The upcoming matches will be the deciding factor in determining whether the team will make it to the playoffs or not. The 53rd match of the IPL will be between the two teams that have a narrow chance of making it to the playoffs.
Kolkata Knight Riders are currently placed in the eighth position with only four wins out of ten matches while Punjab Kings is in seventh place with five wins out of ten matches. Both teams are in a vulnerable position at the moment. If they fail to win most of the coming matches, that will probably lead to elimination.
Punjab Kings are clearly in a better state compared to Kolkata Knight Riders but they lost their previous match against Mumbai Indians. They have a lot of skilled players who are in form.
Looking at the points table, Kolkata Knight Riders is evidently in a bad state. Their victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad sure injected some confidence in them. Winning this match is extremely important for the team.
Punjab Kings had a staggering victory by 7 runs in the last clash against Kolkata Knight Riders. The match result was decided by the DLS method. Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Shikhar Dhawan and Sam Curran were the main contributors from the batting side. Punjab Kings set a target of 191 runs losing five wickets.
Pitch Report
The match will take place in the home stadium of Kolkata Knight Riders, Eden Gardens. The pitch is highly assistive for batters. As the match goes on, the pitch might also become supportive for spinners as well. The average runs in this pitch are also on the higher side. We will witness a batting-centric contest today.
Kolkata Knight Riders Team Squad
Nitish Rana(c), Johnson Charles(wk), Narayan Jagadeeshan(wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Harishit Rana, Kulwant Khejroliya, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Lockie Ferguson, Shardul Thakur, Suyush Sharma, Aarya Desai, Jason Roy, Mandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Anukal Roy, David Wiese, Sunil Narine.
Punjab Kings Team Squad
hikhar Dhawan(c), Jithesh Sharma(wk), Prabhsimran Singh(wk), Atharva Taide, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Shahrukh Khan, Shivam Singh, Liam Livingstone,Matt Short, Mohit Rathee, Rishi Dhawan, , Kagiso Rabada, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Baltej Singh, Sam Curran, Sikandar Razza, Arshdeep Singh, Gurnoor Brar, Harpreet Brar.
