In a season of big hits and slow pitches, the one moment that has stood out more than most has been the sight of Andre Russell’s stumps lighting up from a Kagiso Rababa yorker.
And the swashbuckling Russell’s big-hitting prowess will be pitted against Rabada’s inch-perfect yorkers for the second time this season when Kolkata Kight Riders face Delhi Capitals in a return-leg fixture of the Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens on Friday.
Second in the IPL table with eight points from six matches, KKR’s season so far has been a Russell show with the Jamaican amassing 257 runs from five innings, out of which 150 have come in sixes alone. His average has been 128.50 while the strike rate is a mind-boggling 212.39, something that has left the opposition clueless on how to stop him.
Russell has had five hits this season and he’s made scores of 49*, 48, 62, 48* and 50*. It is the first time in his 293-match T20 career that the Jamaican has made more than 20 in five consecutive innings; that fact illustrates the form the Jamaican has been in.
MS Dhoni provided a template for containing Dre-Russ with his spin-heavy attack en route to handing KKR a crushing seven-wicket defeat in Chennai in their last match. Russell’s batting strike-rate against the quicks this season stands at 250.58; in contrast, his strike-rate against spin reads 122.22.
KKR’s second defeat this season had earlier been at the hands of Delhi Capitals in a dramatic Super Over finish at Kotla with Rabada winning the battle against Russell.
Tasked to defend 11 runs in the Super Over, Rabada was smashed for a four by Russell in the first ball, but returned strongly to uproot the middle stump with an inch-perfect yorker, something Ganguly has termed as the “ball of the tournament”.
While KKR will look to avenge their first leg defeat, Delhi, who have six points from as many matches, will be looking for their fourth win of the league to return to top-five. With the KKR fans may be anticipating a Russell-mania at the Eden, the nature of the wicket will also play an important role in Friday’s match.
The spotlight will also be on where former KKR and India captain Sourav Ganguly sits during the match. Ganguly will be a ‘visitor’ at his ‘home’ ground of Eden Gardens as he is currently donning the advisor’s hat in the Delhi franchise, which has drawn ‘conflict-of-interest’ charges against him.
KKR have won all three matches this season when they’ve chased targets. For DC, it might well come down to the toss and not letting DreRuss do his thing in the run-chase.
Head to Head in IPL:
Overall: Matches – 22, Kolkata Knight Riders – 13, Delhi Capitals –9.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (c), Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Nikhil Naik, Joe Denly, Shrikant Mundhe, Nitish Rana, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Lockie Ferguson, Harry Gurney, KC Cariappa and Yarra Prithviraj.
Delhi Capitals: Shreyas Iyer (c), Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant(wk), Colin Ingram, Keemo Paul, Axar Patel, Rahul Tewatia, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma, Hanuma Vihari, Ankush Bains, Harshal Patel, Manjot Kalra, Chris Morris, Sherfane Rutherford, Jalaj Saxena, Sandeep Lamichhane, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nathu Singh, Bandaru Ayyappa, Colin Munro.