With 250 totals becoming the norm and power-hitters pushing the limit, Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals will hope to out-bat each other in the Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens here on Monday.
In four of the five matches at the Eden, both teams have crossed 200 and the last encounter — which witnessed Punjab Kings gather 2.33 runs per ball to post a record chase of 262 for two with eight balls to spare — underlined that no total is safe in the new-age slam-bang version of the game.
KKR, which has thrived primarily due to the success of its batters, will continue to depend on its crack opening pair of Phil Salt and Sunil Narine to make an early assault. Others, including captain Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh and Ramadeep Singh, will be keen to carry it forward.
KKR’s bowling needs attention. Narine has been impressive but he requires support from other bowlers, such as Harshit Rana, Andre Russell and Varun Chakravarthy. If Mitchell Starc, who has recovered well, returns, it will be beneficial.
Besides the destructive Jake Fraser-McGurk and skipper Rishabh Pant, DC has other capable hands, including Shai Hope, Tristan Stubbs and Axar Patel, who can go on run hunting.
Pacers Mukesh Kumar and Rasikh Dar Salam and spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Axar can create problems for any opposition.
After consecutive wins over Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians, DC, with ‘Prince of Kolkata’ Sourav Ganguly in its camp, will be upbeat about avenging its loss.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c), David Warner, Abishek Porel, Ricky Bhui, Yash Dhull, Shai Hope, Prithvi Shaw, Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kushagra, Swastik Chikara, Ishant Sharma, Jhye Richardson, Rasikh Dar Salam, Vicky Ostwal, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Praveen Dubey, Khaleel Ahmed, Sumit Kumar, Axar Patel, Gulbadin Naib, Lalit Yadav, Jake Fraser-McGurk.
Match starts: 7.30 p.m.
