Kolkata Knight Riders will look to regain momentum at home after a reasonably successful ‘away’ mission in the IPL-8.
When the defending champion takes on the current table-topper Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens on Sunday, it will try to maintain the form gained while taming Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils.
Despite losing a rain-truncated match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, KKR will look at the favourable win-loss record (three wins and two losses) in its last five assignments to push for its second win at home.
The toss will be vital for KKR captain Gautam Gambhir, who has scripted successful run-chases. In fact, the two-time champion has won all its three matches so far chasing targets. It lost the only time it was asked to bat first, by Royal Challengers Bangalore at its last home outing. The batsmen such as Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey and Suryakumar Yadav seem to instil confidence in Gambhir, who has led the charge making three 50-plus scores.
Andre Russell has shown good form so far lending solidity to the KKR lower order while coming up as a good option in the bowling department.
What will be bothering the KKR skipper is the other West Indian in the side, Sunil Narine, who has once again been reported for “suspect illegal bowling action”.
In such a situation Gambhir will have to rely more on the likes of Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav and Piyush Chawla, who have manned the bowling department so far.
Rajasthan Royals, which has been the most proficient side of the tournament with five wins, saw its victory march halted in its last two outings. Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Watson will be hoping that his side regains the cohesion and resilience that saw it tame rival teams in the first five matches.
The visitors will be eager to keep the top position at a time when the league stage is poised to enter the crucial phase. This will happen once its batting, led by Ajinkya Rahane, who currently owns the Orange Cap, starts firing again.
Rain threat
The upcoming encounter contains all the ingredients of an absorbing contest and one will hope the weather will hold to let the match be played. Rain spoiled KKR’s evening practice on Saturday.
Teams (from)
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Yusuf Pathan, Suryakumar Yadav, Johan Botha, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav, Ryan ten Doeschate, Azhar Mahmood, Pat Cummins, Brad Hogg, KC Cariappa, Aditya Garhwal, Sheldon Jackson, Kuldeep Yadav, Sumit Narwal, Veer Pratap Singh and Vaibhav Rawal.
Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Karun Nair, Deepak Hooda, Sanju Samson, Stuart Binny, James Faulkner, Chris Morris, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tamble, Ben Cutting, Tim Southee, Rusty Theron, Ankit Sharma, Brainder Sran, Rajat Bhatia, Vikramjeet Malik, Abhishek Nayar, Pardeep Sahu, Dinesh Salunkhe, Rahul Tewatia, Sagar Trivedi and Dishant Yagnik.
Match starts 4pm IST.
Sunil Narine's suspect bowling action
>Sunil Narine gets vetted at Chennai sports science facility
The West Indies off-spinner, who plays for KKR, had been asked by BCCI to get his bowling action cleared
>Sunil Narine suspended from bowling in CLT20 final
Narine was reported for a second time in as many matches over a suspected illegal bowling action during the semi-final game.
>BCCI clears Sunil Narine for IPL
KKR star spinner Sunil Narine will play in the IPL after the BCCI sub-committee dealing with suspect bowling actions gave him a clean chit.
>WICB withdraws Sunil Narine from India tour
WICB has withdrawn Sunil Narine from the upcoming tour of India after the mystery spinner was banned from bowling in the CLT20 final
