The 49th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 will be played between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on October 3. KKR has won 5 out of their 12 games so far, and they are currently standing 4th on the points table. On the other hand, SRH has managed to win just 2 games out of the 11 they have played so far, and as a result, they are placed at the bottom of the points table presently.
In their last game against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at Dubai, KKR suffered a loss in the very last over. Batting first, KKR stacked 165 runs for the loss of 7 wickets and PBKS managed to chase is down the score in the 20th over, courtesy to Rahul’s 67. On the other hand, SRH also suffered a 6-wicket loss against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Sharjah. Batting first, SRH only managed to reach a total of 134 runs, however, CSK chased down this total in the final over itself, their openers Ruturaj Gaejkwad and Faf du Plessis did most of the job.
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These two teams have met 20 times so far in IPL history, where KKR won 13 matches while SRH has won 7 games. The last time these two teams met, in India, KKR won the game by 10 runs. A loss here for KKR would almost rule them out of the contention for the playoffs whereas a win or loss for SRH wouldn’t make any difference for them in rankings.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
KKR continues to wait on the fitness of Andre Russell and Lockie Ferguson. The focus will once again be on the KKR spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine. In UAE so far, they have scalped 13 wickets in five matches. Wriddhiman Saha strikes at over 140 against KKR but struggles against Narine. All other SRH batsmen have also been struggling against Narine and with Chakravarthy also in the mix, KKR will once again bank on their spinners for a middle overs strangle.
Probable XI: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Tim Seifert/Shakib al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee, Varun Chakaravarthy
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)
Since 2017, Rashid Khan has picked 89 wickets from 73 matches at an economy of 6.24. He’ll once again be the crucial cog but SRH will be looking forward to Bhuvneshwar Kumar making the early inroads and preventing KKR from making a fast start.
Probable XI: Jason Roy, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Kane Williamson (c), Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma
Fantasy XI Suggestion 1:
Wriddhiman Saha, Rahul Tripathi, Jason Roy, Kane Williamson, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer (C), Jason Holder (VC), Sunil Narine, Rashid-Khan, Varun Chakravarthy, Siddharth Kaul
Fantasy XI Suggestion 2:
Wriddhiman Saha, Rahul Tripathi (VC), Jason Roy (C), Kane Williamson, Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Jason Holder, Sunil Narine, Rashid-Khan, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
