(Cricket news) Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad both lost their first games of the season and all the fans were quick to rule out both the teams competing for the IPL trophy. But after three matches KKR have found some unlikely heroes in those three matches. First, it was Shardul Thakur who single handedly helped KKR beat RCB then Rinku Singh took it to another level with a sensational final ball victory over GT. It’s been three days since that miracle innings but the Knights will still be on a high as they have scored two 200-plus scores now.
For Sunrisers against PBKS they look like a more cohesive unit with the arrival of the South Africans. Against the Kings, Marco Jansen bowled a brilliant spell and picked up two wickets with the new ball while captain Aiden Markram also announced himself in the IPL as he played a supporting role to Rahul Tripathi’s swashbuckling innings. But the biggest positive for the SRH fans would be the re-emergence of Mayank Markande, who bowled an impressive spell of 4 for 15 in the match against Punjab Kings as will be key bowler in a turning track at Eden Garden.
KKR:
Last match Knight Riders brought in N Jagadeesan and Lockie Ferguson for Mandeep Singh and Tim Southee as there will be a temptation to play one either Jason Roy or Litton Das but they should retain their winning combination. KKR have used the impact player very wisely as Suyash Sharma comes in the starting XI if they bowl and Venkatesh Iyer starts if they bat. They might want to rethink that strategy as Iyer can be handy with the ball as well.
Probable bat-first XI: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk) 2 N Jagadeesan, 3 Venkatesh Iyer, 4 Nitish Rana (capt), 5 Andre Russell, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Shardul Thakur, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.
Probable bowl-first XI: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Venkatesh Iyer, 3 Nitish Rana (capt), 4 Andre Russell, 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Shardul Thakur, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Lockie Ferguson, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Suyash Sharma
SRH:
Harry Brook replaced Anmolpreet Singh at the top of the order as Hyderabad brought in Heinrich Klaasen to keep wickets in their last match against the Kings. They might look to retain the same playing XI but they can use Abdul Samad as the impact especially if it’s a chase – for one of the bowlers to strengthen their batting.
Probable bat-first XI: 1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 Harry Brook, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 Heinrich Klaasen, 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Mayank Markande, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Umran Malik/ T Natrajan
Probable bowl-first XI: 1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 Harry Brook, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Aiden Markram (capt.), 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 Washington Sundar, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Mayank Markande, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Umran Malik, 11 T Natarajan.
Also read: Hardik Pandya fined for GT’s slow over rate
