Match – Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders – Final
Venue – Dubai International Cricket Stadium
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 an excellent one for batting. But of late, the track has shown signs of slowing down a wee bit. In the ongoing IPL, nine out of 11 matches have been won by the chasing teams. Chasing should be the way forward for teams.
Avg first innings score: 152 (11 matches in the IPL 2021 at Dubai)
Record of chasing teams: Won – 9, Lost – 2, Tied – 0
Probable Playing XIs
Chennai Super Kings
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Uthappa, MS Dhoni (C & WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Dwayne Bravo, Josh Hazlewood
Bench: Robin Uthappa, KM Asif, Jason Behrendorff, Bhagath Verma, Krishnappa Gowtham, Narayan Jagadeesan, Lungi Ngidi, Cheteshwar Pujara, Harishankar Reddy, R Sai Kishore, Karn Sharma, Sam Curran, Imran Tahir
Kolkata Knight Riders
Venkatesh Iyer, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (c), Sunil Narine, Shakib Al Hasan, Dinesh Karthik, Shivam Mavi, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy
Bench: Karun Nair, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Ben Cutting, Pawan Negi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Tim Southee, Sheldon Jackson, Tim Seifert, Harbhajan Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sandeep Warrier, Vaibhav Arora, Andre Russell, Prasidh Krishna
Head-to-Head
Overall
Played – 27 | Chennai Super Kings– 17 | Kolkata Knight Riders– 9 | N/R – 0
In the UAE
Played – 3 | Chennai Super Kings– 2 | Kolkata Knight Riders– 1 | N/R – 0
Probable best batter of the match
Venkatesh Iyer— Kolkata Knight Riders
Venkatesh Iyer has been a fantastic prospect for the Knights in the 2021 edition of the IPL. The left-hander has looked in ominous touch, having scored 320 runs at an average of 40 and a strike rate of 125. The southpaw has scored three half-centuries and must be high on confidence. In the Qualifier 2, Iyer scored a magnificent fifty and saw KKR over the finishing line.
Probable best bowler of the match
Varun Chakravarthy– Kolkata Knight Riders
Varun Chakravarthy has been excellent for KKR, especially in the UAE leg of IPL 2021. The off-spinner is currently the leading wicket-taker for the Knights, having taken 18 wickets at an economy rate of 6.40. The tweaker has been tough to get away on the slow and low wickets in the UAE. In the previous game, he picked up two wickets and looked in great rhythm.
