Less than 48 hours after putting Rajasthan Royals to the sword in the IPL Eliminator clash at Eden Gardens, Kolkata Knight Riders will take the field once again at the same venue as they take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the second Qualifier on Friday for a spot in the finals against Chennai Super Kings.
Playing on their home ground, the Knight Riders were mighty impressive in their 25-run win over Rajasthan on Tuesday despite looking down and out at one point.
Dinesh Karthik’s men now have the winning momentum under their belt with four consecutive victories on the trot.
FREE-FALLING SUNRISERS
Sunrisers Hyderabad were looking unstoppable at one point in the IPL as they embarked on a run of five consecutive victories. The league leaders were the first side to book their place in the playoffs but have been in a free-fall ever since.
Kane Williamson’s men limped their way to the first Qualifier on the back of three consecutive defeats in the league as the wheels started to come off from their campaign.
Against Chennai Super Kings, the Sunrisers looked to be on top before a Faf du Plessis special consigned them to a fourth consecutive defeat. Hence, the two teams will come into the clash with contrasting momentum.
PLAYERS IN FOCUS
In the Eliminator on Tuesday, spinners from both sides shone with Kolkata’s Kuldeep Yadav putting in an inspired performance. With the wicket expected to be similar on Friday, Sunrisers’ Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan will fancy himself to shine.
The 19-year-old has picked up 18 wickets in the tournament so far and will be Sunrisers’ trump card on the slow surface at Eden Gardens.
LIKELY LINE-UPS
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (c, wk), Andre Russell, Shubman Gill, Javon Searles, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Piyush Chawla
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Kane Williamson (c), Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Carlos Brathwaite, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, Siddharth Kaul, Sandeep Singh.