Three weeks ago, when Kolkata Knight Riders hosted Kings XI Punjab at the Eden Gardens, it had rained so much that the game had to be decided by the DLS method. Such a scenario looks unlikely here, with the temperature hovering above 40° Celsius.
With a 4 p.m. kick-off, much of the match would have to be played in hot and humid conditions. The visitors might find something else besides the weather that could be too hot to handle: the KXIP opening pair.
If Chris Gayle doesn’t get you, K.L. Rahul will; sometimes both will, as KKR found to its dismay. They added 116 inside 10 overs to take KXIP home in that match at Kolkata. Dinesh Karthik’s men must be putting their faith in the saying that lightning doesn’t strike twice at the same place or in this case against the same team.
For KRR cannot afford a similar outcome this weekend. It is desperate for a win after the back-to-back losses to Mumbai Indians.
To do that, it will have to do a lot better than what it did in its last home match, in which KKR was thrashed by 102 runs. With just three matches remaining, KKR has to strike form right away if it wants to keep its playoffs chances alive.
At the time of filing this report, KKR was fifth in the table with five wins from 11 games. R. Ashwin’s KXIP has six wins from 10.
KXIP, meanwhile, would be keen to put behind it the loss in its last match to Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur, despite Rahul’s unbeaten 95 off 70 balls. The Karnataka opener now has 471 runs, while Gayle has 311.
The middle-order has been a cause for concern for KXIP, though coach Brad Hodge played it down when he talked to reporters. “I think everyone in the middle-order is actually hitting the ball very well and we just need to complement those two at the top,” he said.
Hodge added he was pleased with his bowling attack, spearheaded by spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman and pacer Andrew Tye.
A little earlier, fellow-Australian and KKR batting coach Simon Katich had sounded confident too. “I expect the boys to bounce back pretty hard,” he said.
For that, KKR needs runs from the likes of Karthik, Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn and Robin Uthappa, especially on a wicket where all the teams batting first have won in the IPL. Wrist spinners Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav too could have important roles to play.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Dinesh Karthik (Captain/Wicket—keeper), Robin Uthappa, Mitchell Johnson, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, Ishank Jaggi, Nitish Rana, Vinay Kumar, Apoorv Wankhade, Rinku Singh, Shivam Mavi, Cameron Delport, Javon Searles, Tom Curran, Prasidh Krishna.
Kings XI Punjab: Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin (Captain), Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, Lokesh Rahul (Wicket—keeper), Chris Gayle, David Miller, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Manoj Tiwary, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Barinder Sran, Andrew Tye, Akshdeep Nath, Ben Dwarshuis, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Manzoor Dar.
Match starts at 4 p.m.
