Maxwell and Kings XI, the underdogs
Match facts
Kolkata Knight Riders v Kings XI Punjab
Kolkata, April 13, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
Head to head
Last season Kolkata Knight Riders' bowlers handed Kings XI Punjab's batsmen seven single-digit scores in their first meeting in 2016 to set up a six-wicket win in Mohali. The same trend continued at Eden Gardens when Andre Russell took a four-for to successfully defend a total of 164 despite a Glenn Maxwell half-century.
Overall Knight Riders have beaten Kings XI in all seven of their most recent matches in the IPL to set up a dominant 13-6 lead. The record is 6-2 in Kolkata.
In the news
Knight Riders have lost Chris Lynn for a "substantial" time, and while that is a loss, it could also mean that Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa are reunited at the top of the order. Their opening partnership has tallied more than 400 runs for three seasons straight. Additionally, fast bowler Umesh Yadav has recovered from his hip and lower back niggles and might well be up for selection. It is also highly likely that Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hasan will make his way back into the playing XI. They also have West Indies batsmen Darren Bravo and Rovman Powell in the reserves.
Ahead of what will be the first IPL game to be played at a re-laid Eden Gardens surface, most of the talk has been about how the venue has become a lot more seamer-friendly. If that is true, New Zealand allrounder Colin de Grandhomme might get a game. A medium-pacer known to extract sideways movement, he also has a batting strike-rate of 171.
Kings XI appear to have no injury worries. They might consider Ishant Sharma in place of Mohit Sharma, but having won both their matches so far in this new season, are likely to retain the same XI.
The likely XIs
Kolkata Knight Riders 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Robin Uthappa (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Shakib Al Hasan, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Umesh Yadav/Piyush Chawla, 11 Trent Boult.
Kings XI Punjab 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 4 Glenn Maxwell (capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Mohit Sharma, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 Varun Aaron, 11 T Natarajan.
Stats that matter
- Chasing seems the sensible thing to do at Eden Gardens, according to numbers from the last IPL season. The average score batting first in 2016 was 157, and five out of six night games were won by the team batting second. The odd one out were Kings XI, who fell short by seven runs.
- David Miller averages 54 with a strike-rate of 147 in the second innings as opposed to 28 and 139 in the first. Yusuf Pathan averages 37 with a strike-rate of 153 in the second innings as opposed to 27 and 137 in the first. In 2016, Glenn Maxwell averaged 52 with a strike-rate of 162 batting second but those numbers fell off a cliff when he batted first: average 3.83, strike-rate 82.
- Kings XI have been the most generous team in conceding scores of fifty or more to opposition batsmen. The overall number is 118; Knight Riders have contributed 17.
- Although Axar Patel has been their designated floater, Wriddhiman Saha could possibly have a go at the top of the order on Thursday. He has smashed Sunil Narine at a strike-rate of 144 and Piyush Chawla at 156.
- Saha batting higher might help in other ways too. He could conceivably keep Maxwell and Miller from facing spin early in their innings. Maxwell has lost his wicket twice in 24 balls to Narine and three times in 25 balls to Chawla. Miller has only faced seven deliveries from Narine in the IPL.
- Out of all the venues that have hosted at least 30 IPL games, Eden Gardens offers spinners the lowest average (26.32) and the second-lowest economy rate (7.30). But it all changed last year. The spinners did take more wickets at this ground than the others - with a cut off of at least five matches played - but the average went up to nearly 31 and the economy rate shot up to 8.20.
- Among all the batsmen Sandeep Sharma has bowled at least 30 balls to, Gautam Gambhir has the second-lowest strike-rate of 75.67 against him. Uthappa, though, has hit Sandeep for 51 runs in 38 balls losing his wicket only once.