IPL 10, Match 23, KKR v GL Preview: Desperate Lions up against the mighty Kolkata Knight Riders

The in-form Kolkata Knight Riders will take on the hapless Gujarat Lions in their third home game of the season. The venue at Kolkata has been their fortress and they will be looking to extend their winning run at the Eden Gardens. Coming into the game, the hosts sit firmly on the top of the points table at the moment and have emerged as the team to beat this season.

On the other hand, the Gujarat Lions have looked helpless in their bowling department. Andrew Tye gave them a few good moments of brilliance this season but has failed to leave an impact after a five-wicket haul. The Lions boast of a very strong batting lineup in the tournament. But much to their dismay, they have failed to take a heavy toll on the opposition bowlers. They have seen only one player performing on a given day.

This is the second time the two teams will be facing off against one another. The last time they met at Rajkot, the KKR openers had blown away the Lions’ bowlers. KKR had inflicted a 10 wicket win riding on an unbeaten opening stand between Chris Lynn and Gautam Gambhir.

Talking about the most recent form, the Lions were outplayed by the Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rajkot a couple of days ago. The Knight Riders have had a long break and were in action on the double header weekends. They beat the Delhi Daredevils in an away game and are sky high with their confidence level. But what’s with the opening combinations of KKR? That is something that needs to be seen this game.

Toss: Gujarat Lions won the toss & elected to field first

Gautam Gambhir: “We were going to bowl as well. Shakib comes in place of Colin de Grandhomme.”

Suresh Raina: “We are going to bowl first. There was a bit of dew last night. Faulkner comes in for Tye, Praveen Kumar returns in place of Shivil Kaushik.”

Focus will be on

Dinesh Karthik

Gujarat Lions wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik has been one of the powerful performers for the Lions side in the season. Consistency, though, is something that is lacking at the moment. Karthik gets his chances towards the slog overs and he is living the role of the finisher with utmost ease. A failure in the previous game against RCB will be haunting him for sure. Earlier in the tournament, he hit a quick unbeaten 48 against the Mumbai Indians. He had played a similar quickfire cameo against the Kolkata Knight Riders as well when he had scored 47.

Yusuf Pathan

The big hard hitting batsman from Kolkata Knight Riders camp Yusuf Pathan has evolved immensely as a player. Yusuf played a match winning knock in the previous game against the Delhi Daredevils. A fifty to his name and a 110-run stand with Manish Pandey set up the win for the Knight Riders against the Daredevils. With Yusuf coming back to form, the KKR camp looks all the way more stable than ever before. He can hit the long ball and the fragile Lions bowling could well be at the receiving end of the proceedings.

Team Combination – Kolkata Knight Riders

The Knight Riders have been on a merry run this season. They have looked largely settled in their matches but their opening combinations have certainly not been the most settled one. They tried with Colin de Grandhomme opening in the previous game which backfired big time. Considering the overseas batting lineup of the Gujarat Lions, KKR might draft in Shakib Al Hasan in the side in place of Colin de Grandhomme.

Trent Boult might not make it to the side for this game as Nathan Coulter-Nile had impressed big time on his debut for the franchise in the last game. Chris Woakes and Umesh Yadav will continue to have their spots in the pace department. Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav have been decent in their performances for the Knight Riders thus far. The batting needs no modifications as most of the batsmen have been amongst the runs.

Team Combination – Gujarat Lions

The Gujarat Lions have been struggling with the bowling. Basil Thampi’s impressive spell against the RCB remains to be the only bright spot for the Lions this season. Andrew Tye will be expected to shoulder more responsibility. Dhawal Kulkarni has not been at his best thus far and might well be replaced by Praveen Kumar in the lineup. Shivil Koushik and Ravindra Jadeja would be the two spinners in the side. Much to their disappointment, both spinners have leaked runs heavily.

The team might get tempted to field all-rounder James Faulkner. This could add stability to their bowling lineup. Faulkner is likely to walk in the side at the expense of Dwayne Smith. In Smith’s absence, Aaron Finch can walk in the opening slot along with Brendon McCullum. Last year, McCullum and Finch had shared 3 fifty-plus stands while opening the innings. Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik look good in the middle order and Ishan Kishan showed power hitting in the last game.

Playing XI:

Gujarat Lions: Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina(c), Aaron Finch, Dinesh Karthik(w), Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Praveen Kumar, Basil Thampi, Dhawal Kulkarni

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir(c), Robin Uthappa(w), Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Suryakumar Yadav, Shakib Al Hasan, Chris Woakes, Sunil Narine, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav

StatAttack

2 – Number of sixes Suresh Raina needs to hit to come second on the list of most sixes in IPL history. He has 163 sixes to his name and is next to Rohit Sharma (164) and Chris Gayle (262)

7 – Number of runs needed by Suresh Raina to overtake Virat Kohli as the leading run scorer in the IPL history.

33 – Number of fifties hit by Gautam Gambhir in IPL – this is next to only David Warner’s tally of 34 fifties.