One of the most loved Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be locking horns with their northern greats Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The irony is that both the teams have won their respective season openers that too with a bang. While KKR defeated another good team Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at home in a humdinger and Kings defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Jaipur, the game in which it was more like Rajasthan lost more than the other way around.
Considering the opening games of both the teams, Kolkata can be termed as a more balanced side as compares Punjab. Although there were a lot of doubts as to whether KKR can be a team to beat or not this season, they showed that the team has is it in them to be a strong contender. On the other hand, Punjab, despite having a good mix of Indian and overseas players who are yet to be tested in this season’s IPL, they lack in balance in their squad.
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Despite the fact that IPL 2019 as just started, the fans have started witnessing the madness. Both squads are balanced on papers and have enough firepower to entertain the crowd. But it will be interesting to see who will come on top after 40 overs in Kolkata.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
After defeating SRH in their opening game in which they took the match out from the jaws of defeat to register a sensational win, Kolkata must be looking to continue the momentum. Andre Russell, the hero of that win, who turned on his beast mode in the last three overs of the match. When KKR need of 53 runs in 18 balls, out of which 21 came in Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s one over.
Nitish Rana was also in good form during the game and scored 68 runs while opening the batting with Chris Lynn. Sunil Narine looked a bit off color that day was didn’t come out to bat after having a poor outing with the ball. However, Dinesh Karthik is expected to field with the same XI.
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Probable XI: Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Shubhman Gill, Dinesh Karthik (C/WK), Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna.
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP)
KXIP won a controversial game against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur by 14 runs. First Punjab put on a great batting display. Where Chris Gayle and Sarfaraz Khan shone to register a total of 184/4 in 20 overs. Ravichandran Ashwin was bowling in a good rhythm and dismissed Ajinkya Rahane before getting Jos Buttler out by Mankading him.
The game saw several momentum shifts but it was KXIP who came on top at the end. Though Ashwin doing Mankaded is raising some questions about his sportsmanship but that is just an out of context debate. It has stolen KXIP’s efforts to come back in the match from a point. Where RR was cruising towards a comfortable chase.
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Probable XI: Chris Gayle, KL Rahul (WK), Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Sam Curran, Ravichandran Ashwin (C), Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ankit Rajpoot.
