Kolkata wary of Gujarat at home
Published: 04:04 PM,Apr 28,2023 | EDITED : 08:04 PM,Apr 28,2023
Kolkata Knight Riders' players celebrate after winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on April 26, 2023. (Photo by Manjunath KIRAN / AFP)
On a bright and sunny day in Oman, the cricket fans are going to be making sure that their breakfast, lunch and dinner is in front of the televisions with their families. It all starts with two neighbouring countries Oman and UAE going head-to-head in the semifinals of the ACC Men’s Premier Cup 2023, where the veterans of Oman will be facing the youth of UAE in a 50-over format. Oman lead the 50 over equation by 3:2 in 6 games, where one game finished in a tie. Later it will be a double header in the IPL as well. Will UAE, Gujarat and Sunrisers be able to settle the scores; or will Oman, Kolkata and Delhi increase their domination?
KKR VS GT AT KOLKATA
PREVIOUS ENCOUNTER – 411 runs were scored in the previous encounter between them, which was on April 9 at Ahmedabad. On that occasion, it was the brilliance of Rinku Singh that helped Kolkata to cross the line, despite a hat-trick from the spin magician Rashid Khan. Rinku Singh smashed five sixes of the last five deliveries to get Kolkata home from an almost lost cause. Earlier for Gujarat Titans, it was Vijay Shankar who took a liking of the Kolkata’s bowling (63 runs off 24 balls). Defending champions Gujarat Titans will want to encash the revenge card against Shahrukh Khan’s team.
TEAM INFO – After losing 4 games in a row, Kolkata have finally found a win against the unpredictable Royal Challengers Bangalore, which will give some kind of confidence to this incredibly dangerous side. At the moment, Kolkata are seventh in the points table. While, Gujarat are well on the second spot with 5 wins in 7 games. They are an extremely balanced side and even those matches that they lost were pretty close encounters.
Head-to-Head - Played - 2; Won by KKR – 2; Won by GT – 0
KKR possible 12 – N Jagadeesan, J Roy, V Iyer, N Rana, R Singh, A Russell, S Narine, D Wiese, V Arora, U Yadav, V Chakaravarthy, S Sharma
GT possible 12 – W Saha, S Gill, H pandya, V Shankar, D Miller, A Manohar, R Tewatia, R Khan, M Shami, N Ahmed, M Sharma, J Little
Pitch & Weather Report – The Eden Gardens surface is well-known for its batting-friendly wickets. Because of the stadium's small size, it is a high-scoring venue in the shortest format of the game. Notably, the team which prefers to bowl first has a better chance of winning at this venue.
Match Prediction – KKR are an incredibly dangerous team with some brilliant striking capability in the lower order. Ideally KKR should prepare a spinners paradise with the trio of Naraine, Chakaravarthy and Suyash, but they would surely be concerned with GT having Rashid and Noor. The extra-ordinary balance of Gujarat team is what makes them special, yet expect Kolkata to stun them on this occasion.
DC VS SRH AT DELHI
PREVIOUS ENCOUNTER – Just a few games prior, both these teams clashed in an interesting encounter. Delhi won the toss and elected to bat first. With none of their batters able to carry on to the starts, they crawled to 144/9 and that’s exactly where Sunrisers would have considered this game won. An over-cautious and patient knock from Mayank Agarwal and a collapse of the top order forced them to leave a lot for behind and with 13 required from the last over, Mukesh Kumar bowled a gem
of an over for Delhi to win by 7 runs.
TEAM INFO – After losing five games in a row, Delhi have won two in a row and both were low scoring encounters. Obviously, the last opponent was the Sunrisers Hyderabad and they would want to continue the momentum. Sunrisers have lost
three games on the trot and they would desperately want to get to winning ways.
Obviously, the team that loses would pick up the last spot and that’s a position that Delhi has held for too long and would want to get out of it.
Head-to-Head - Played - 22; Won by DC – 11; Won by SRH – 11
DC possible 12 – D Warner, P Salt, M Marsh, M Pandey, S Khan, A Patel, A Khan, R Patel, A Nortje, K Yadav, I Sharma, M Kumar
SRH possible 12 – A Sharma, H Brook, A Markram, M Agarwal, H Klaasen, Vivrant Sharma, Akeal Hosein, M Markande, B Kumar, T Natarajan, U Malik, R Tripathi
Pitch & Weather Report – - The previous match at this venue witnessed considerable assistance for the slower bowlers. The team winning the toss in Delhi would be inclined to bowl first, given the slow nature of the surface and also with the threat of dew hampering the bowlers in the second innings.
Match Prediction – The absence of Washington Sunder, will force a lot of changes, which were actually bound to happen with 3 losses in a row for SRH. From the start of the season, SRH have been struggling to find the right combination and the theory of horses for courses is something that they haven’t been able to work on. It is a game of two weakest of sides, and I feel that it will be the Delhi Capitals that will find a way to come out on top.
KKR VS GT AT KOLKATA
PREVIOUS ENCOUNTER – 411 runs were scored in the previous encounter between them, which was on April 9 at Ahmedabad. On that occasion, it was the brilliance of Rinku Singh that helped Kolkata to cross the line, despite a hat-trick from the spin magician Rashid Khan. Rinku Singh smashed five sixes of the last five deliveries to get Kolkata home from an almost lost cause. Earlier for Gujarat Titans, it was Vijay Shankar who took a liking of the Kolkata’s bowling (63 runs off 24 balls). Defending champions Gujarat Titans will want to encash the revenge card against Shahrukh Khan’s team.
TEAM INFO – After losing 4 games in a row, Kolkata have finally found a win against the unpredictable Royal Challengers Bangalore, which will give some kind of confidence to this incredibly dangerous side. At the moment, Kolkata are seventh in the points table. While, Gujarat are well on the second spot with 5 wins in 7 games. They are an extremely balanced side and even those matches that they lost were pretty close encounters.
Head-to-Head - Played - 2; Won by KKR – 2; Won by GT – 0
KKR possible 12 – N Jagadeesan, J Roy, V Iyer, N Rana, R Singh, A Russell, S Narine, D Wiese, V Arora, U Yadav, V Chakaravarthy, S Sharma
GT possible 12 – W Saha, S Gill, H pandya, V Shankar, D Miller, A Manohar, R Tewatia, R Khan, M Shami, N Ahmed, M Sharma, J Little
Pitch & Weather Report – The Eden Gardens surface is well-known for its batting-friendly wickets. Because of the stadium's small size, it is a high-scoring venue in the shortest format of the game. Notably, the team which prefers to bowl first has a better chance of winning at this venue.
Match Prediction – KKR are an incredibly dangerous team with some brilliant striking capability in the lower order. Ideally KKR should prepare a spinners paradise with the trio of Naraine, Chakaravarthy and Suyash, but they would surely be concerned with GT having Rashid and Noor. The extra-ordinary balance of Gujarat team is what makes them special, yet expect Kolkata to stun them on this occasion.
DC VS SRH AT DELHI
PREVIOUS ENCOUNTER – Just a few games prior, both these teams clashed in an interesting encounter. Delhi won the toss and elected to bat first. With none of their batters able to carry on to the starts, they crawled to 144/9 and that’s exactly where Sunrisers would have considered this game won. An over-cautious and patient knock from Mayank Agarwal and a collapse of the top order forced them to leave a lot for behind and with 13 required from the last over, Mukesh Kumar bowled a gem
of an over for Delhi to win by 7 runs.
TEAM INFO – After losing five games in a row, Delhi have won two in a row and both were low scoring encounters. Obviously, the last opponent was the Sunrisers Hyderabad and they would want to continue the momentum. Sunrisers have lost
three games on the trot and they would desperately want to get to winning ways.
Obviously, the team that loses would pick up the last spot and that’s a position that Delhi has held for too long and would want to get out of it.
Head-to-Head - Played - 22; Won by DC – 11; Won by SRH – 11
DC possible 12 – D Warner, P Salt, M Marsh, M Pandey, S Khan, A Patel, A Khan, R Patel, A Nortje, K Yadav, I Sharma, M Kumar
SRH possible 12 – A Sharma, H Brook, A Markram, M Agarwal, H Klaasen, Vivrant Sharma, Akeal Hosein, M Markande, B Kumar, T Natarajan, U Malik, R Tripathi
Pitch & Weather Report – - The previous match at this venue witnessed considerable assistance for the slower bowlers. The team winning the toss in Delhi would be inclined to bowl first, given the slow nature of the surface and also with the threat of dew hampering the bowlers in the second innings.
Match Prediction – The absence of Washington Sunder, will force a lot of changes, which were actually bound to happen with 3 losses in a row for SRH. From the start of the season, SRH have been struggling to find the right combination and the theory of horses for courses is something that they haven’t been able to work on. It is a game of two weakest of sides, and I feel that it will be the Delhi Capitals that will find a way to come out on top.