Having recorded two back-to-back wins, a spirited Kolkata Knight Riders will look forward to securing its third successive win when it meets Sunrisers Hyderabad in a home Indian Premier League match at the Eden Gardens on Friday.
After scoring 200-plus twice on aggregate, KKR has gathered some momentum. It will expect Rinku Singh, who incredibly hit five consecutive sixes in the last over to deflate defending champion Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad, to showcase his fireworks in another memorable win and entertain an exuberant Eden Gardens, which has already seen a run feast in the first match.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer and captain Nitish Rana will be the other key batters for KKR. The availability of Bangladeshi wicketkeeper-batter Litton Das widens KKR’s options.
The host will want its pace battery, including Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee and all-rounder Shardul Thakur, to live up to its billing and its spinners, including Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and stylish rookie Suyash Sharma, to display their magic again.
Despite its not-so-impressive head-to-head record against the host (KKR 6 wins, SRH 2) at the Eden, SRH will be confident after securing its first victory against Punjab Kings.
Its top run-getter Rahul Tripathi will need more support from fellow batters such as Mayank Agarwal, Aiden Markram, Abdul Samad, Harry Brook and Heinrich Klaasen.
SRH’s known all-rounders, including Abhishek Sharma, Marco Jansen and Washington Sundar, and capable bowlers, including Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik and Adil Rashid, will be keen to raise their game and check KKR’s progress.