This match promises to be one of the most exciting ones of IPL 2018 so far. Kolkata Knight Riders have 3 wins in 5 games, while Punjab have three successive wins to have 3 out of their 4 in all. This will be a repeat of the 2014 IPL final and Punjab will be looking to take revenge under their new captain, Ravi Ashwin.
Teams
What can I say about the Kolkata Knight Riders team? When you look at the line up, there are so many big names and they are able to win games even when Sunil Narine goes for 0/48 in his spell and Chris Lynn is dismissed for 0, like what happened in the last game. There was no real contribution from Andre Russell either in that game, which saw the likes of Shivam Mavi, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Piyush Chawla and Dinesh Karthik taking center stage.
At the end of the day, that’s the sign of a complete squad, when you’re able to win even when your big names don’t shine and each game brings out a new match winner. Chawla, Narine and Kuldeep form a formidable spin attack while Tom Curran also seems to be settling down after a bad first game. 12 overs of spin at the Eden Gardens is going to be tough to get away. Good luck to Team Punjab!
DK is also a newly appointed captain and even though he’s been good in this season of the Indian Premier League, you must agree that Ashwin has inspired his team like no one else. However, the main talking point for KXIP is the ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle, who scored 63 in his first game, and followed it with his 6th IPL century in the last game against SRH. Two games and two Man of the Match awards for him. Generally, he isn’t someone who I would call consistent, but I’ve never seen him so determined to prove a point ever before. Beware KKR!
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It’s all going to boil down to the battle of the spinners. While KKR have three quality spinners, Mujeeb Zadran is Punjab’s only go-to spinner, as Ashwin generally goes for a lot of runs. Zadran hasn’t gone for much in IPL 2018, but they will want wickets from him. Axar Patel is a spin option on the bench, but he isn’t a mighty turner of the ball so I guess he will stay on the bench and the KXIP team should remain unchanged.
Overall
Apart from a win for Punjab the last time these two sides met, Kolkata have smashed Punjab each time they have met, leading the head to head count 8-2 in their last ten games, including a streak of 8 consecutive wins! That stat speaks for itself so I will have my money on Kolkata Knight Riders for this game! Can’t wait to see if Gayle can get the better of Narine, or will it be vice versa?
