The second playoffs match of the ongoing 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is scheduled to be played between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Kolkata. Both the teams have had a similar kind of journey in the league stages of the season. While KKR started the tournament in the high then lost the momentum in the middle then against got back to the winning ways, RR had a poor start in IPL 2018, but they came back well in the latter half of the tournament. The winner of this match will lock horns with SRH in the Qualifier 2.
However, in terms of the winning momentum, both the teams have won their last matches, while KKR defeated SRH in Hyderabad, RR defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore in Jaipur. Here are the probable playing XIs –
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
KKR had sealed their place in the playoffs by defeating the bowling heavy team Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their own den and secured a place in the last four to win.
In the last match against Rajasthan Royals (RR), Kolkata team was very clinical. Kuldeep Yadav recorded his best figures of the season with a match-winning spell of 4/20. Chris Lynn led the chase calmly and Dinesh Karthik made sure a quick completion of the target.
In the game against SRH, Shivam Mavi was replaced by Prasidh Krishna and he bowled beautifully in the match by taking four wickets out of which he took 3 in the final over of the innings. Now, it will be interesting to see of Mavi gets back into the squad for not.
Probable XI: Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Robin Uthappa, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Rana, Javon Searles, Prasidh Krishna/Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Piyush Chawla
Rajasthan Royals (RR)
After staring down the barrel for quite a time, the wins against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) boosted the Rajasthan Royals (RR) team. The match against KKR before defeating RCB had brought them back to the Earth though, but they managed to qualify for the playoffs of IPL 2018 even without the support of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes.
In the last match against KKR, Jos Buttler scored just 39 and apart from him, no one was really able to guide the team. RR fell apart after his departure. RR tried containing KKR early but once Kolkata was set loose they managed a comfortable victory.
With both Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes out of the squad, their replacements Heinrich Klaasen and Ben Laughlin have done a phenomenal job. Others look safe with their spot in the team.
Probable XI: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Stuart Binny, D’Arcy Short/Heinrich Klaasen, Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Laughlin, Sanju Samson, Ish Sodhi, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal/Anureet Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Jofra Archer
