IPL 9, Match 51 Preview: Lions and Knight Riders clash for the playoffs berth

The Gujarat Lions will lock horns with the Kolkata Knight Riders in a must-win game for both the teams at Kanpur. The venue will be hosting its first ever match under the floodlights and hence the nature of the wicket will be unknown for both the sides. This makes the equation simple, though, the captain winning the toss will be hoping to bowl first to see how the wicket behaves under lights at the Green Park.

While the Gujarat Lions have lost 4 in their last 5 matches, the Knight Riders have suffered two home defeats in their last 5 encounters. Both teams will aim to not just win the game, but get back the confidence and a win will seal them the playoffs berth. A loss would not only mean two points lost but would also hamper their NRR.

Team News

Gujarat Lions:

Captain Suresh Raina is back with the side and will be taking charge of the team. He missed out the last game and the team was handed a 144-run defeat by the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Lions need to regroup and find the winning combination back. Akshdeep Nath is likely to miss out from the playing eleven and make way for Suresh Raina. The team might look in at James Faulkner as well in place of Dwayne Bravo owing to poor batting performances from Bravo this season.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

The Knight Riders suffered a major dent as Andre Russell had to bow out due to an injury. Jason Holder might get a game in place of Russell. Holder has played in only one match so far in this season. With the deck at Kanpur aiding pacers, the West Indian would get an edge over Chris Lynn in the playing eleven. The rest of the squad would be predominantly the same.

Skipper Gautam Gambhir will be the man in focus. Gambhir is currently the 6th leading run-getter in this season and the team would bank on him to give another good start.

Probable XI-

Gujarat Lions:

Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Suresh Raina (C), Aaron Finch, Dinesh Karthik, James Faulkner, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tambe, Shivil Kaushik.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Gautam Gambhir (C), Robin Uthappa (wk), Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shakib Al Hasan, Jason Holder, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Morne Morkel, Ankit Rajpoot.

StAttack

1. This will be the first ever T20 match in Kanpur and also the first-ever match under the floodlights at the venue.

2. Gautam Gambhir has 12 ducks to his name in his IPL career, the most by any player along with Harbhajan Singh.