Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad will be seeking their first win of Indian Premier League 2020 when the two teams clash at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
While KKR went down to Mumbai Indians in their opener, SRH suffered a defeat at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore in their first game.
Russell’s batting position
Once again, the batting position of KKR’s biggest hitter Andre Russell became the talking point in the 49-run loss to Mumbai Indians.
The Jamaican, who was KKR’s highest run-getter last season with 510 runs and also had the tournament’s highest strike-rate of 204.81, was seen at No 6 but by then the task had become extremely difficult.
World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan, who was roped in to bolster the middle order, also could not do much as the asking rate had shot past 13 by the time he came to bat at No 5.
Karthik’s tactics
Karthik seemed to err by holding back Sunil Narine till the last over of the powerplay against Mumbai Indians. Narine was given a go only when his Rohit Sharma was well set.
Kolkata’s biggest buy, Pat Cummins, also had a forgettable day despite the late sixes he hit in the match.
Coach Brendon McCullum might want to force some changes for the men in purple as they look to get rid of the rustiness and get their first win.
SRH look for foreign player combination
Known to put up a balanced side on the park, Hyderabad lacked strength and experience in its middle-order in the defeat to RCB. Needing just 43 runs from the last five overs, SRH lost its last seven wickets for 32 runs to lose the game by 10 runs.
They were also pegged back by an injury to Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh. He has been ruled out of the tournament and will be replaced by West Indies’ Jason Holder.
Skipper David Warner, after being run-out in an unfortunate manner at the non-striker’s end, will be keen to get into the act. It remains to be seen whether Kane Williamson has recovered from his injury to bolster the batting department.
SRH’s bowling has always been impressive and it seems the think-tank may bring in Mohammed Nabi to bowl alongside his fellow mate Rashid Khan while Bhuvneshwar Kumar will spearhead the pace attack.
Head-to-head
| Matches | KKR wins | SRH wins | Ties | KKR win% | SRH win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 58.82 | 41.18 |
Trivia
- KKR record in Abu Dhabi: Played 4, Won 1, Lost 3
- SRH record in Abu Dhabi: Played 1, Lost 1
- Andre Russell needs 89 runs to complete 1500 IPL runs
- Siddarth Kaul needs 1 wicket to complete 50 IPL wickets
- Sunil Narine needs 5 sixes to complete 50 IPL sixes
- Sandeep Sharma needs 5 wickets to complete 100 IPL wickets
KKR squad
| Batsmen | Bowlers | All-rounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nitish Rana | Kuldeep Yadav | Andre Russell | Dinesh Karthik |
| Rinku Singh | Prasidh Krishna | Sunil Narine | Nikhil Shankar Naik |
| Shubman Gill | Sandeep Warrier | Pat Cummins | |
| Siddhesh Lad | Shivam Mavi | Varun Chakravarthy | |
| Eoin Morgan | Kamlesh Nagarkoti | Chris Green | |
| Rahul Tripathi | Lockie Ferguson | ||
| Tom Banton | M Siddharth | ||
| Ali Khan |
SRH squad
| Batsmen | Bowlers | All-rounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kane Williamson | Rashid Khan | Vijay Shankar | Jonny Bairstow |
| David Warner | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Mohammad Nabi | Wriddhiman Saha |
| Manish Pandey | Khaleel Ahmed | Abhishek Sharma | Shreevats Goswami |
| Priyam Garg | Sandeep Sharma | Mitchell Marsh | |
| Virat Singh | Siddarth Kaul | Fabian Allen | |
| Billy Stanlake | Sandeep Bavanaka | ||
| T Natarajan | Sanjay Yadav | ||
| Shahbaz Nadeem | Abdul Samad | ||
| Basil Thampi |
Match starts at 1930 IST and will be broadcast on the Star Sports network and Disney+Hotstar
(With PTI and iplt20.com inputs)