Kolkata
Kolkata Knight Riders captain Nitish Rana won the toss and chose to bowl first in their Tata Indian Premier League match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on Friday.
KKR have had two unlikely heroes with the bat in their last two matches. First, Shardul Thakur conjured a storm with the bat that took Royal Challengers Bangalore by surprise. The pace-bowling allrounder struck a 29-ball 68 to lead KKR to victory.
A few days later, Rinku Singh pulled off a sensational T20 heist by scoring 31 runs in the last over to win a match against Gujarat Titans.
KKR are gunning for a hat-trick of victories and will be keen to prove that though the heroics behind the past two wins were from unlikely sources, they were not flukes.
KKR have played against SRH 23 times and have been victorious in 15 of those encounters. At Eden Gardens, KKR have come out on top six out of eight times. When the two sides met in April 2022, Aiden Markram and Rahul Tripathi scored half-centuries to lead the Orange Army to victory. SRH will want the two players to replicate their past performances.
The pair looked good as they quietly led SRH to their first win of the season. Markram and Tripathi shared an unbeaten 100-run partnership to see SRH home against Punjab Kings. After a slow start, this is what the Orange Army needed. They need the self-belief that accrues from a win as they face KKR at Eden Gardens.
This self-belief will be important, especially for their top order, which has been misfiring this season so far. So far in the tournament, their highest opening wicket stand has yielded 27 runs.
SRH also have the lowest PowerPlay average at this stage of the tournament. All eyes will be on Harry Brook and Mayank Agarwal. They need to come good for SRH.
