Two attacking line-ups set for Sunday blockbuster
Match facts
Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders
Hyderabad, April 30, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
Head to head
This season: Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 3 for 20, Yuvraj Singh struck two sixes in his innings with a strike rate of 162.50 but Sunrisers Hyderabad only managed 155 in pursuit of their 173-run target.
Overall: Kolkata Knight Riders hold a dominant 7-3 lead over Sunrisers
The likely XIs
Sunrisers Hyderabad 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Moises Henriques, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Deepak Hooda, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Siddarth Kaul
Kolkata Knight Riders 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Umesh Yadav
Strategy punt
Sunil Narine could very well open the batting. No surprises there. Maybe Knight Riders should also consider opening the bowling with him, against two left-handed Sunrisers openers. While David Warner has scored a decent 67 runs off 50 balls against Narine, Shikhar Dhawan has only managed 31 runs off 30 balls. When Narine bowled one over to them in the Powerplay earlier in the season, he conceded seven runs, including three singles and two dots in the over.
Stats that matter
- Sunrisers are the only side yet to lose a home game this season, while Knight Riders are the only team to win three away games so far
- Robin Uthappa is the most prolific batsman in the middle overs (seven to 15) this season. He has amassed 225 runs off 124 balls at a commanding strike rate of 181
- This could also be Uthappa's best IPL season if he keeps scoring the way he has been. His average this IPL - 41.37 - is his second-best, behind 44 in IPL 2014. His strike rate of 168 in 2017 is second best after 171.55 in IPL 2010 and he has smashed 17 sixes already. In the last two seasons combined, he had struck only 15 sixes in 28 innings.
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sunrisers' top wicket-taker and most economical bowler (minimum five overs) this season, has never dismissed Gautam Gambhir or Uthappa in the IPL. Gambhir has scored 72 runs off 63 balls against Bhuvneshwar, and Uthappa has collected 63 runs off 51 balls.
- Among the current Knight Riders bowlers, Umesh Yadav has been most successful against Warner. The fast bowler has dismissed him three times while conceding 30 runs off 23 balls. No bowler has dismissed Warner more than three times in the IPL.