Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Gujarat Titans (GT) face off in the 39th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday.
KKR lost to Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 7 runs via DLS method but beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 81 runs. They are coming off a thrilling 3-wicket win over Gujarat Titans (GT). They then lost to Gujarat Titans (GT) by 23 runs and lost to Mumbai Indians (MI) by 5 wickets and again lost to Delhi Capitals (DC) by 4 wickets. They then lost to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 49 runs and beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 21 runs.
On the other hand, GT defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 5 wickets in the first match of the season and then defeated Delhi Capitals by 1 wicket. They were then blown away by Riku Singh and lost to KKR by 3 wickets in a thrilling contest. They then beat Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 6 wickets but lost to Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 3 wickets and beat Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by 7 runs and Mumbai Indians (MI) by 55 runs.
IPL 2023 Mark sheet: Check Team Standings, Team Points, Wins, Losses
What: IPL 2023 Match 39, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Vs Gujarat Titans (GT)
When: April 29, Saturday
Where: Eden Garden, Kolkata
Match Start: 3:30 pm
Kolkata Knight Riders Team News
KKR’s dismal campaign finally got back on track as they put together a cohesive performance to snap their four-match losing streak with a convincing win in Bengaluru.
In a season in which their Caribbean star duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are yet to show their fire, KKR’s low-profile team without their regular skipper Shreyas Iyer could find a trump card in Jason Roy.
The Englishman set the pace with a fiery half-century from the likes of Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh and David Wiese to capitalize and set up a winning score of 201 against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Coming into his sixth match of the season, Roy has scores of 43, 61 and 56 in three matches and KKR’s batting will once again be centered around him.
IPL 2023: purple cap Check out the full list of batsmen with the most runs here
The win has propelled KKR to seventh in the 10-team table but they still have a long way to go to make it to the playoffs.
From here on, KKR (six points) will have to win at least five of their remaining six matches to secure a place in the playoffs.
Out of the six matches, KKR play two away matches, including one in Chennai, and will have their task cut out against the defending champions led by skipper Rana and coach Chandrakant Pandit Pandya.
Varun Chakravarthy, who formed a winning combination against RCB, and rookie leg-spinner Suyash Sharma are sharing the spin workload, with the experienced Narine going wicketless in five matches.
The fast bowling department also doesn’t inspire much confidence as KKR are still searching for a perfect combination, with only Umesh Yadav being a regular in all their eight matches.
They have given debuts to Vaibhav Arora, Kulwant Khejroliya and David Wiese, while Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson and Shardul Thakur have played the musical chairs.
But none of them have impressed, including veteran Indian pacer Yadav.
However, India all-rounder Thakur has a match-winning inning to his credit and KKR might call him back for the tie.
gujarat titans team news
Pandya has come up with a perfect T20 template and his ability to seal close matches has caught everyone’s eye, especially when he restricted Lucknow Super Giants to 135 for 6.
Pandya has been a revelation as captain since January 2022, winning 23 out of 31 matches with a win percentage of 76.67.
GT (10 points from seven matches) have been a well-oiled unit and with a match in hand look poised for a consistent playoff berth, sitting behind Rajasthan Royals on net run-rate.
The Titans boast of an attractive bowling line-up in the form of India pacer Mohammed Shami, who along with Pandya has created quite a flutter in the powerplay.
Shami has made it look so easy with subtle movement of his fingers around the seam at the time of delivery and he will relish the challenge when he returns to his ‘home ground’.
IPL 2023: orange cap Check out the full list of batsmen with the most runs here
Pandya is also increasing the pace, something he showed when he dismissed his Mumbai Indians counterpart Rohit Sharma at 144 kmph.
But the likes of Rana and the in-form Rinku will face their biggest challenge when they square off against the GT spinners, led by the clever Rashid Khan, who has found a new ally in teammate Noor Ahmed.
Following in the footsteps of Rashid, the 20-year-old left-arm spinner has been relentless especially in the middle overs.
It was on full display when they restricted MI to 152 for 9 in their chase of 208, Noor returning with figures of three for 37 which also included the prized scalp of Suryakumar Yadav.
On top of the in-form Shubman Gill (three fifties) and the powerhitting trio of David Miller, Abhinav Manohar and Rahul Tewatia in the lower-half, GT also have a fearless batting unit.
It remains to be seen how KKR’s spin team tackles the Titans bowling challenge, which will have ‘home boy’ Wriddhiman Saha to fire at the top along with Gill.
Full Squad:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (capt), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma , David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Litton Das, Mandeep Singh, Jason Roy.
Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudarshan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav , R. Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmed, Dasun Shanaka, Odion Smith, KS Bharath, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Joshua Little and Mohit Sharma.
with PTI inputs
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