In the 35th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 has the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be locking horns with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Sunday. After a promising start to their IPL campaign, KKR has completely lost the track as they have registered two consecutive losses ahead of his game. A change in captaincy didn’t help as Eoin Morgan and co his men suffered a comprehensive loss to Mumbai Indians (MI) on Friday.
KKR will need their youngsters Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana to fire on all cylinders, along with Andre Russell, who is yet to get going in IPL 2020. On the other hand, for SRH, despite the heroics of Jonny Bairstow and Rashid Khan in IPL 2020, the Sunrisers have been dearly missing the services of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
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However, T Natarajan has been doing well in the slog overs. The Orange Army will be hoping for the southpaw to come good against KKR, especially with their hopes of making it to the playoff.s The previous IPL 2020 game between the two sides saw Shubman Gill star with the bat as KKR beat SRH by seven wickets. With both teams looking to boost their chances of a top-four finish, the fans will be expecting a cracking start to a double-header Sunday in the IPL.
As the two sides prepare for a thrilling encounter, here’s a look at three key player battles to keep an eye on.
#1. Eoin Morgan vs T Natarajan
One of the best modern-day batsmen, Eoin Morgan will be facing T Natarajan and it promises a lot on paper. The KKR skipper is the highest run-scorer for the team in the season so far, but he has lost the momentum in the last few matches. Morgan has a decent IPL record and on the other hand, Natarajan has always been a wicket-taker for SRH and he will be under immense pressure to prove his worth.
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Natarajan will be playing the role of a wicket-taker. He is the highest wicket-taker for SRH in the ongoing season as he has sclaped 9 wickets in 8 games at a strike rate of 20.55. He will be looking forward to improving the numbers this season for sure.
#2. Dinesh Karthik vs Rashid Khan
Dinesh Karthik is way past his glory years as he has scored just 112 runs from 8 matches. However he has managed to maintain the strike-rate is fine at 128.73, but facing Rashid Khan won’t be easy for him as he has sclaped 10 wickets from eight games with an incredible economy of 5.34. As things stand, form and luck seem to be favoring Rashid Khan, but Karthik is a fighter to the core and will battle away as long as he can. And who knows, it could well be Rashid who has to bear the brunt, come Sunday.
#3. David Warner vs Pat Cummins
KKR frontline bowler Pat Cummins has been failing to produces wickets for which he has been known for. On the other hand, David Warner has scored 257 runs from seven SRH games in IPL 2020, with a fine 60 as his top score and a strike rate of 121.88, which is quite a bit lesser than his IPL overall strike rate of 141.04.
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Pat Cummins has scalped two wickets from eight matches for CSK, with an economy of 8.6, but he has in the last couple of matches shown a rhythm and he has been swinging the ball well, which can be telling for an opener. With both teams desperate for a win, key players like Warner and Cummins will be eyeball-to-eyeball. Who blinks first may well affect the result of the match.
