Gujarat Titans seek vengeance against resurgent Kolkata Knight Riders in round 2 of the rivalry

In a tale of two contrasting teams, third-placed Gujarat Titans will be locking horns with the Kolkata Knight Riders, who are in the seventh position of the IPL points table. The Titans are well en route to clinching that top spot as they have played seven games from which they have secured five wins, registering 10 points. A win against the Knights would hand them a slender lead for the ace of the table as the other teams are currently stationed at 12 points which is at par with the defending champions.

The hosts KKR will be coming to this fixture on the back of a fine victory against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. In a high-octane run-fest, the Knights pipped RCB to the finish line as Jason Roy and Nitish Rana led from the very front. Varun Chakravarthy was clinical with the ball, registering figures of 3/27 while Andre Russell and Suyash Sharma also shared four wickets between them to dent RCB’s batting effort.

Gujarat Titans are soaring for the time being and when they enter the Eden Gardens, they would be keen on vengeance after what happened the last time when these two teams squared off. They trumped the Mumbai Indians in their preceding encounter, as Shubman Gill was in red-hot touch with a 34-ball-56 while David Miller’s quickfire 46 set the tone for the Titans. Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan broke the spine of the Mumbai Indians’ batting unit as they claimed five wickets collectively at the expense of 64 runs between them from their total quota of four overs each.

The last time these two teams met, Rinku Singh pulled off the unthinkable, hammering 31 runs in the final over from Yash Dayal. Things haven’t panned out well for the fast bowler since then as he has severely fallen sick, as per the statement made by Hardik Pandya. However, the Titans would be hungry to prove their reign over the Knights who have been brilliant in patches but when it comes to consistency, the writings on the wall seem ominous.

Head to head:

Matches played: 2

GT: 1

KKR: 1

Match Details:

Match: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Gujarat Titans

Venue: Eden Gardens Stadium, Kolkata

Date: 29th April, 2023

Time: 3:30 PM

Squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Nitish Rana (C), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, Narayan Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Weise, Kulwant Khejrolia, Mandeep Singh, Litton Das, Jason Roy. 

Gujarat Titans:

Hardik Pandya (C), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudharsan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, R Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad, Odean Smith, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma, Dasun Shanaka