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As KKR got going, Nathan Ellis struck to trap Rahmanullah Gurbaj for 15 in their chase of 180.
Shikhar Dhawan scored 57 as PBKS made 179/7 after electing to bat. For KKR, Varun Chakravarthy took 3/26. Late flourishes from Shah Rukh Khan and Harpreet Brar helped them finish with a competitive total.
Dhawan scored a half-century before being dismissed by Nitish Rana. Rishi Dhawan hit some big shots before becoming the third victim of Varun Chakravarthy.
Shikhar and Jitesh Sharma put on a fine 53-run partnership for the fourth wicket before being separated. Making 58/3 in the powerplay, PBKS lost Chakraborty to Liam Livingstone after flicking Harshit Rana twice.
PBKS, however, got off to a brisk start. Prabhsimran Singh hit three fours in the first over and then Harshit accounted for Bhanuka Rajapaksa for a duck.
PBKS captain Shikhar Dhawan declared the toss correct and elected to bat first. He feels that the wicket is looking a bit dry and wants his batsmen to post good totals. They have one change with Matthew Short off the bench and Bhanuka Rajapaksa replaces him.
KKR skipper Nitish Rana said that he would have batted earlier as well and revealed that he is unchanged.
match preview
It has been over a month since KKR played their first match of IPL 2023 at the Eden Gardens. This resulted in a big win over Royal Challengers Bangalore. Since then they have played three times at home, losing all three matches. Three of their four wins in 10 attempts have come in away games. Clearly, KKR are not feeling exactly at home as of now. And with teams starting to focus on myriad permutations and combinations to check their playoff chances, the Knight Riders know they can’t let any more slip up in the upcoming games.
They will play two back-to-back matches at home, the first of them tonight against the Punjab Kings, a team that has scored four consecutive 200-plus scores, an IPL record. Of these, two have won and two have lost. What bothers PBKS is that he has also given away more than 200 runs four times in a row.
So PBKS know where to focus their energies now, and more so because they are just one rung above KKR in the standings. A win tonight will propel them into the top three.
This is the second encounter between these two teams this season with PBKS winning the first encounter by seven runs in Mohali.
Full squad of Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Suyash Sharma, N Jagadeesan, Kulwant Khejroliya , Mandeep Singh, Tim Southee, David Wiese, Umesh Yadav, Aarya Desai
Full squad of Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan(c), Matthew Short, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(w), Sam Curran, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rishi Dhawan, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Sikandar Raza, Atharva Taide, Mohit Rathee , Shivam Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Baltej Singh, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Gurnoor Brar
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