(Cricket news) Kolkata Knight Riders have been the team to beat in the last five matches at the Indian Premier League in UAE. They are currently on a four match winning streak and have produced an all round performance under pressure versus Delhi Capitals.
Shubman Gill has been leading the batting charts for Kolkata with 427 runs in 16 matches and has also scored two fifties. Venkatesh Iyer has three fifties and has scored 320 runs in nine matches with the highest average of 40. Rahul Tripathi has scored 395 runs in 16 matches followed by Nitish Rana who has 383 runs in 16 matches. Eoin Morgan has failed with the bat as he has scored 129 runs in 16 matches and is yet to score a half century in the league.
In the bowling side, Varun Chakravarthy is the only bowler to take more than 15 wickets as he has 18 from 16 matches. He is also the most economical bowler in the team as he has been keeping under 7. Sunil Narine has been on form as he provided for the team against Royal Challengers Bangalore taking the wickets of Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villers among his four scalps.
Both the teams are meeting at the finals for the second time, they had met in the 2012 final in which Kolkata won by five wickets. Sunil Narine and Shakib Al Hasan are the only players from the team who were there nine years ago. Kolkata won for the second time in 2014 beating Punjab Kings in the final. Kolkata has scored 190 plus both the time they entered the final and the batsmen will again expect to score high for the third time.
Chennai Super Kings are in the final for the 9th time and are not new to pressure. They have triumphed three times and last won in 2018. Robin Uthappa now in Chennai Super Kings was the top scorer for Kolkata when they won the trophy in 2014.
Ruturaj Gaikwad has been leading the run charts for Chennai, he has scored 603 runs in 15 matches and Faf du Plessis has scored 547 runs in 15 matches. Moeen Ali comes a distant third with 320 runs in 14 matches, Suresh Raina has scored 160 runs in 12 matches as he has faced only 128 balls and captain MS Dhoni has scored 114 runs in 15 matches while facing 107 balls. This is the first time Raina has scored below 350 runs in a single edition of the league.
Shardul Thakur has been the top bowler for the team with 18 wickets in 15 matches. Dwayne Bravo has taken 13 wickets in ten matches and Deepak Chahar with 13 to his name in 14 matches. Ravindra Jadeja has taken 11 wickets in 15 matches and the other bowlers taking less than 10 wickets.
Kolkata has used over 14 bowlers this season as Chennai has only used 10 bowlers. No batsman has scored over 500 runs for Kolkata so far while two batsmen have scored over 500 and one scoring more than 600 runs. Kolkata has been a terrific performer in the final leg of the league and has a winning record in finals while Chennai is the heavy favourite with a proven track record. Kolkata will be the favourite going into the finals and can maybe add a third title to its name.
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