Match:KKR vs RPS, 45th Match, Indian Premier League, 2016
Date:Saturday, May 14, 2016
Time:02:30 PM GMT, 20:00 IST
Venue:Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Stadium:Eden GardensCity:Kolkata
Capacity:90,000
Ends:High Court End, Pavilion End
Hosts to:Bengal, Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets on Sunday already played and lost to the Lions in Gujarat. Six days later, they grow their top-four place having lost against Pune supergiants can head into their match. However, at home, with three of their remaining four matches, to lose the Knight Riders a playoffs berth.
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Mahendra Singh Dhoni's side is the first team to make an exit in the ninth edition after they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in their previous match but left with three matches, the Supergiants will be keen to sign off on a high.
On the other hand, Dhoni, who is at the helm of Pune franchise, has drawn a lot of flak for his bizarre decisions of late and it's high time that he takes more batting responsibilities and silence his critics. Considered one of the best finishers of world cricket, Dhoni had Thisara Perera with him when they needed 22 from two overs but the skipper decided not to attack the impressive Bangladeshi left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman who conceded just eight runs in the 18th over. Instead of an aggressive approach, Dhoni and Perera preferred to go for safe shots of ones and twos and risked the match into the last over as Sunrsisers Hyderabad won by four runs, defending a paltry 137.
The Pune franchise is owned by a Kolkata businessman and they will make themselves feel at 'home' while a rejuvenated Knight Riders back after a five-day break will be desperate to arrest their slide.
One of the big factors that's eluding KKR is Sunil Narine's X-factor something that has contributed to their triumphs in 2012 and 2014 with the off-spinner claiming 74 wickets in four seasons. Back after a remedial action, the 'mystery' spinner Narine has only managed six wickets from six outings at an economy of 7.34 as the batsmen are no more afraid to go for big hits against him. Narine also missed KKR's first two matches because of his father's demise and was nursing a finger injury to miss their last two matches, against Bangalore and Gujarat.
For a team that normally goes with six bowlers, KKR would hope to make use of the conditions and restrict their opposition but at the same time skipper Gautam Gambhir may think of promoting Andre Russell up the order.
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad:
Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir, John Hastings, Brad Hogg, Jason Holder, Sheldon Jackson, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Lynn, Manan Sharma, Morne Morkel, Colin Munro, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Ankit Rajpoot, Andre Russell, Rajagopal Sathish, Shakib Al Hasan, Jaydev Unadkat, Robin Uthappa, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav
Rising Pune Supergiants Squad:
Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Murugan Ashwin, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Scott Boland, Deepak Chahar, MS Dhoni, Ashok Dinda, Faf du Plessis, Peter Handscomb, Jaskaran Singh Singh, Mitchell Marsh, Albie Morkel, Ishwar Pandey, Irfan Pathan, Thisara Perera, Kevin Pietersen, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Steven Smith, Saurabh Tiwary, Adam Zampa, George Bailey, Usman Khawaja
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