Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Double header brings IPL into full business

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If you were stunned by the action-packed evening of entertainment and cricket, with that mind-blowing opening ceremony of the IPL, followed by the classic encounter between MSD’s Chennai Super Kings and Kung Fu Pandya’s Gujarat Titans; then you don’t have a lot of time to recover. Today is a double header, where first Shikhar Dhawan’s Punjab Kings (Group B) welcomes Nitish Rana’s Kolkata Knight Riders (Group A) to their home in Mohali at 2 pm (Oman Time). In the evening at 6 pm, it will be David Warner’s Delhi Capitals that will be visiting KL Rahul’s Lucknow Super Giants at Lucknow.


PUNJAB KINGS VS KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS


TEAM FACTS: Shikhar Dhawan, who has lost his position in the Indian team, after a very short stint/opportunity, especially on the back of young Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill’s mindboggling 200s and this will be his opportunity to redemption and to showcase that he is not yet finished.


KKR is missing the services of the star player Shreyas Iyer and in his absence, it will be Nitish Rana, who will be leading the team. With 90 plus games under his belt, this will be an opportunity to showcase his leadership


skills.


Head-to-Head


Played - 30; Won by KKR- 20; Won by PBKS – 10


PUNJAB KINGS Expected Playing 11 - Shikhar Dhawan (c), Shahrukh Khan, B Rajapaksa, Sikandar Raza, SM Curran, R Dhawan, MW Short, JM Sharma, Harpreet Brar, RD Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.


Kolkata Knight Riders Expected Playing 11 - RK Singh, N Rana (c), VR Iyer, AD Russell, SP Narine, Narayan Jagadeesan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shardul Thakur, LH Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, UT Yadav.


KKR Possible Impact player: If KKR batting 2nd: Litton Das, Mandeep Singh If KKR Bowling 2nd: David Wiese, Suyash Sharma, Harshit Rana


PBKS Possible Impact player - If PBKS Batting 2nd: Shahrukh Khan, Prabhsimran Singh If PBKS Bowling 2nd: Nathan Ellis, Vidhwath Kaverappa


Pitch Report


The pitch at Mohali initially aids the quick bowlers but becomes batter-friendly over the course of the game. Early assistance for quick bowlers is on offer during the initial overs. Batting becomes easier as the game progresses. There will be little assistance on offer for the spinners on this track. Average score on this wicket is around 170.


Match Prediction – Here we have two teams and their captains looking to prove a point to the world. Punjab and Kolkata finished 6th and 7th in the last year’s IPL and that something that we would be looking to better. With an 80% winning record for the team chasing, it will be the toss that will be a very important factor.


Although, if we exclude the toss factor and missing players, it’s KKR which looks like a much-settled side on paper with a lot of experience on their side, which should play an important role.


LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS VS DELHI CAPITALS


TEAM INFO: David Warner, who ended his journey in a very unlikely manner with Sunrisers Hyderabad, while KL Rahul has been receiving a lot of hate for having repetitive opportunities, even after a series of failures in the


Indian team. Both these captains that have gone through a rough patch off lately will be looking for some early success so that they can have early momentum, which is so important for the right team environment.


Head-to-Head:


Played - 2; Won by DC- 0; Won by LSG – 2


Lucknow Super Giants Expected Playing 11 - KL Rahul (c), Manan Vohra, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Krunal Pandya, Ayush Badoni, Avesh Khan, Mark Wood, Ravi Bishnoi, Daniel Sams


Delhi Capitals Expected Playing 11 - Prithvi Shaw, David Warner (c), Mitchell Marsh, Manish Pandey, Philip Salt (wk), Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman


LSG Possible Impact player: If LSG Batting 2nd: Manan Vohra, Ayush Badoni; If LSG Bowling 2nd: Amit Mishra, Jaydev Unadkat


DC Possible Impact player: If DC Batting 2nd: Yash Dhull, Rovman Powell; If DC Bowling 2nd: Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Khaleel Ahmed


Pitch Report


The pitch is good for batting. Bowlers are punished if they miss their mark. Batters should enjoy batting, so expect a high-scoring affair.


Average score on this wicket is around 180+.


Match Prediction


Expect an even-steven affair between both these sides. It’s Lucknow that have had a brilliant IPL 2022, where they finished 3rd and they believe that they have the right balance. On the other hand, it was Delhi that have a few extremely good and dangerous impact players, that can change the course of the game within the span of a few deliveries. It has been seen that KL Rahul likes to play the waiting game and on the other side it's David Warner, who likes to make things happen.


Irrespective of the confidence and momentum that LSG carry, one would believe that DC have an upper hand and it would be on the back of the in-form and extremely destructive Mitchell Marsh, so it's going to be Delhi Capitals all the way!


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