An alert from the National Disaster Management Authority bears grim prognoses about impending thunderstorms, rain and gusty wind for the residents here ahead of Rajasthan Royals versus Kolkata Knight Riders, Indian Premier League’s last group-stage fixture.
That the match at Barsapara Stadium may end up deciding whether Sanju Samson’s men finish in the top two, may have the dugout addressing a prayer or two to the weather gods.
How things are
The mathematics is quite simple now. If RR wins against KKR on Sunday, it enters Qualifier 1. However, a Chennai Super Kings loss on Saturday and a Punjab Kings win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the day game on Sunday can also ensure a second-place finish for the RR without it having to take the field.
If Sunday’s contest does get underway, death overs are where Samson’s team needs to metamorphose into its full glory. RR has not only scored 71 runs more than KKR between the 16th and 20th over, but it has also picked 24 wickets, a touch better than KKR’s 21. RR will also carry a psychological advantage for it pulled off a record chase to prevail the last time these two sides met.
An interesting duel to look forward to will be the one between spinners Varun Chakaravarthy and Yuzvendra Chahal in the middle overs. While Varun has picked 16 wickets, the most by any bowler in 2024 between overs 7 and 16, Chahal has accounted for 15.
KKR will not have Phil Salt, who has flown back to England on national duty, in the eleven. Although Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz will be an ideal like-for-like replacement, Shreyas Iyer and Co. haven’t officially named anybody.
Teams (from):
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 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, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson and Allah Ghazanfar.
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c), Abid Mushtaq, Avesh Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Kuldeep Sen, Kunal Singh Rathore, Nandre Burger, Navdeep Saini, Ravichandran Ashwin, Riyan Parag, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Rovman Powell, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Trent Boult, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Tanush Kotian
Match starts: 7.30pm.
