Kolkata Knight Riders: KKR have come back stronger in the second leg with their hopes of playoffs still alive. A win from here would make thing brighter for them as they have the best NRR among teams that have not yet qualified for the playoffs. Their batting looks solid, especially after the inclusion of Venkatesh Iyer, who has been in outstanding form. Also their bowling looks dangerous with the Spin Duo of Narine & Chakravarthy. Although, their skipper’s long failure and injuries might be the areas of concern for them.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Their loss against CSK officially shut their door of any hope they had to make it to the Playoffs. Having qualified for the playoffs for the last 5 seasons, this season have been a huge disappointment for the orange army. But as they step into the match with nothing to lose, they might come as a tough opponent for the knight riders.
Qualification Senariao :
With CSK and DC already locking the Playoffs spots and RCB almost the 3rd team in line, KKR would be fighting for the 4th Spot with three other sides – PBKS, RR and MI. Though their NRR is much higher than the other 3, winning both their games would ensure they reach the next stage without being dependent on other results. But even if they lose today, they could only qualify if they defeat RR in their final game, provided RR defeats MI or vice versa if SRH beat MI and PBKS faces a loss in any of their last 2 matches.
Venue & Time:
Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai at 19:30 IST on 03 October, 2021.
Live Streaming:
Star Sports Network and Disney Hotstar VIP and Premium Account will be streaming Match 49 of VIVO IPL between KKR and SRH.
Head to Head
KKR has dominated the rivalry with 13 Wins (including one from Super-Over) while SRH could win just 7.
Last Encounter:
KKR comfortably won their opening game against SRH on the back of half-centuries from Rana and Tripathi. SRH while chasing 188, crumbled right from the beginning as they lost both the openers cheaply and couldn't recover further.
Probable XI:
Kolkata Knight Riders: There is no update on the status of Russell and Ferguson so they are unlikely to return to Playing XI. But KKR would like to add an extra bowling option as they had to rely on Iyer (and Rana) as the 5th Bowling option. So Shakib may finally get a chance.
Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (capt), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Sandeep Warrier, Varun Chakravarthy.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: They are unlikely to make any changes to the side that played their last match against CSK unless there is any last moment injury.
Jason Roy, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Kane Williamson (capt), Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma
Pitch Report:
The Dubai International Cricket Stadium is a batting-friendly surface and is expected to assist the batters once again here. Though the wicket might get slower at a later stage of the match. It is a 160-170 kind of a wicket and bowling first will be a good option.
Approaching Milestones:
Dinesh Karthik needs just 5 Runs to complete 4000 Runs in IPL.
Eoin Morgan needs 29 Runs to complete 1000 Runs for KKR.
Nitish Rana needs 30 Runs to complete 3000 Runs in T20.
This will be 100th IPL Match for Sandeep Sharma
This will be 100th Match for Bhuvneshwar Kumar with SRH
Fun Facts:
Eoin Morgan has very disappointing returns this season scoring just 109 Runs in 11 Innings at 10.90 and Striking just over Run a Ball. He has been dismissed 9 times in Single Digits which includes 3 Ducks.
Jonny Bairstow, who opted out for the UAE leg, is yet the Highest Scorer for the SRH side this season with 248 Runs in 7 matches he played in the first leg. This reflects how poorly SRH have batted this season
Their loss to PBKS, was KKR’s 100th IPL Defeat (including 3 Super-Over Defeats).
This is the first time the World Cup 2019 Finalist Captains – Eoin Morgan and Kane Williamson are facing each other as IPL Captains.
KKR’s Coach Brendon Mccullum is the predecessor of Williamson as the NZ Captain while SRH’s Coach Trevor Bayliss was England’s Head Coach till the World Cup 2019. So it will also be Morgan vs Bayliss and Williamson vs Mccullum.
Prediction:
Looking at the current form of both the sides, KKR is clearly the favorite but we can’t rule out SRH as they have already been knocked out and have nothing to lose.
Dream XI:
