Kolkata: Given their last two consecutive wins, high on confidence Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) would look to replicate as they fight to survive in their face-off against a depleted Rajasthan Royals (RR) team here on Thursday. Hinging at the middle of the points table, the former champions have risen to the occasion and are touted as one of the most dangerous sides after their last-ball win against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Punjab Kings.
Apart from pushing itself from eighth to sixth position now, the victories have shown that the team always had the grit that has now been provided with a booster shot in their chase for the third IPL title. The points table has never been this challenging with four teams latched in their positions with 10 points each.
RR team, presently, are ahead of KKR on account of their NRR but the standings could alter depending on the outcome of the match, moving either of sides to the top 4. KKR looks more compact, possesses clarity, and are riding high on confidence after the wins while RR seems to have hit the rock-bottom after three successive losses.
Despite launching attacks on oppositions and reaching scores in excess of 200, RR has lost the game of on-field strategies causing hurt to the side. This makes the match a vital one as both teams would vie to earn the crucial points that will enable their chances to make it to the playoffs.
KKR's reliance on Varun Chakravarthy has paid dividends as he has been key in turning the game in favour of his team. Besides defending nine runs against the SRH win, his 3-26 reflected match-winning figures in the game against Punjab Kings.
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Their other "mystery" bowler, Sunil Narine, however, is yet to fire but Chakravarthy has compensated Narine's underwhelming display by picking 17 wickets in the season thus far. Narine, nevertheless, has found backing from the team management but Chakravarthy's quota of four overs could largely be a decisive one for his team and RR would be wary of him going into the match.
KKR too have loopholes to fill as their pacers struggle to deliver and the team management deciding not to hand over the ball to experienced and World Test Championship Final-bound Shardul Thakur might be taken into consideration. Their saving grace has been thrilling performances by the batters. Rinku Singh and Andre Russell saved the day for them in the last match even as pacers Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana took the team on the verge of defeat after leaking 36 runs in the last two overs against Punjab.
The team might look to utilise Shardul's services in the face of tackling in-form, devastating batters of RR -- Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson. Given that KKR needs to mend their bowling department, RR too would like to make amends after receiving a severe blow in their last outing against SRH where they couldn't defend 214 runs.
KKR's biggest relief would be Andre Russell's coming back to form in the last match against PBKS where he thundered, scoring 42 runs off 23 balls. Russell hurled devastating blows to Sam Curran, slapping the ball for three sixes in the penultimate over to turn the match in Kolkata's favour.
While skipper Nitish Rana has been the backbone of their batting, Rinku's emergence as a finisher is coming off well for the team. From the Royals' perspective, the trio of Rana, Rinku and Russell would be their main threats. Their battle against the Royals' spin-bowling stalwarts Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal in the middle overs could prove to be decisive.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N. Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Mandeep Singh, Aarya Desai and Johnson Charles.
Punjab Kings: Sanju Samson (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer, Joe Root, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Sandeep Sharma, Trent Boult, Obed McCoy, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldip Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, KC Cariappa, Jason Holder, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Rathore, Adam Zampa, KM Asif, Murugan Ashwin, Akash Vashisht and Abdul P A.
Match starts: 7.30pm.
