KKR go up against the Punjab Kings in a battle of staying afloat in the hunt for the playoffs

In a battle of two teams which have drifted in and out of form in the points table, seventh-placed Punjab Kings will be squaring off with eighth-placed Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 53 of IPL 2023. Punjab Kings has so far amassed five wins from ten games at a net run rate of -0.472 while Kolkata Knight Riders has secured four wins from ten games at a net run rate of -0.103.

KKR will be coming to this bout after a stunning win against SRH in a topsy-turvy encounter. Rinku Singh led the charge with the bat, scoring 46 from 35 balls while being aptly complemented by Nitish Rana, who scored 42 from just 31 balls. However, it was a magical display from Varun Chakravarthy, who registered figures of 1/20 and bowled the final over to clinch a remarkable win for the Knights.

Punjab Kings, on the contrary, were brushed aside emphatically by the Mumbai Indians in a run-fest at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. Liam Livingstone was a blazing lodestar, hammering 82* from 42 balls while Jitesh Sharma’s unbeaten 49 from 27 balls helped Punjab to post a staggering 214 on the board. Unfortunately, except for Nathan Ellis, who scalped two wickets, the other bowlers were subjected to merciless clobbering from the MI batsmen.

The reverse fixture was the clash which commenced the campaign for these two teams, a match in which Punjab Kings rode high on Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Shikhar Dhawan’s heroics to leave KKR with a hint of the hard times to follow, while Arshdeep Singh put up a show with the ball, finishing with figures of 3/19.

Head to head:

Matches played: 31

KKR: 10

PBKS: 21

Match Details:

Match: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Punjab Kings

Venue: Eden Gardens Stadium, Kolkata

Date: 8th May, 2023

Time: 7:30 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.

Punjab Kings:

Shikhar Dhawan (C), Prabhsimran Singh(wk), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma, Shahrukh Khan, Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Nathan Ellis, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Atharva Taide, Mohit Rathee, Shivam Singh, Raj Bawa, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Kagiso Rabada, Baltej Singh