Match – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad – 49th match
Venue – Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai.
Time – 7:30 PM IST, 02:00 PM GMT
Where to watch live – Star Sports Network, Hotstar
Pitch Report
The pitch in Dubai has been a good one for batting. In fact, it has been the best batting strip out of all the three venues. The bowlers haven’t found the going easy on the surface. Of late, the chasing teams have tasted quite a bit of success.
Avg first innings score: 158 (6 matches in the IPL 2021 at Dubai)
Record of chasing teams: Won – 4, Lost – 2, Tied – 0
Probable Playing XIs:
Kolkata Knight Riders
Venkatesh Iyer, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (C),Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Tim Seifert/Shakib Al Hasan, Tim Southee, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Mavi
Bench: Karun Nair, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Shakib Al Hasan/Tim Seifert, Ben Cutting, Pawan Negi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Andre Russell, Sheldon Jackson, Harbhajan Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sandeep Warrier, Vaibhav Arora, Sandeep Warrier, Lockie Ferguson
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Jason Roy, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Kane Williamson (C), Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma.
Bench: Mohammad Nabi, Kedar Jadhav, Basil Thampi, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Shahbaz Nadeem, T Natarajan, David Warner, Jagadeesha Suchith, Virat Singh, Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey
Venkatesh Iyer has been exceptional for the Knight Riders in the 2021 edition of the IPL. In five games, the southpaw has notched 193 runs at an average of 48.25 and a strike rate of 141.91. Having already scored two half-centuries, Iyer has exceeded expectations until now in the league. Not to forget that Iyer isn’t worst with the ball by any means.
Probable best bowler of the match
Varun Chakravarthy– Kolkata Knight Riders
Varun Chakravarthy has been outstanding for KKR bowlers. The off-spinner is the leading wicket-taker for the Men in Gold and Purple, having taken 13 wickets at the economy rate of 6.75, the best among the regular KKR bowlers. In the previous game against the Kings, he got two wickets and conceded runs at a rate of six. He is again expected to play a crucial role.