Knights desperate to flip the tide against a formidable Titans

IPL will storm into another weekend of exciting stramashes as a rollicking blockbuster kickstarts the Saturday with the Kolkata Knight Riders meeting the Gujarat Titans at the Dr. DY Patil Stadium in a battle of the extremes.

The Knights will be raring to set their campaign back on the right course after three defeats on the bounce with their last game producing the most agonizing upshot despite coming within inches of the finishing line. Chasing a momentous 217, they managed to amass a staggering 210 before Umesh Yadav was cleaned up by Obed McCoy with two balls to spare.

The Titans are in phenomenal form and will be taking the field after a good deal of rest with a sublime victory against the Chennai Super Kings where David Miller and Rashid Khan changed the complexion of the game from practically nowhere. Despite Rashid Khan’s fall at the end, Miller kept his nerves steady to hammer home the winnings runs with 1 ball left.

The Titans are comfortably stationed at the peak of the pecking order with 5 wins from 6 matches and a staggering NRR of +0.395. The Knights started their campaign on a sound note but the last three defeats have somehow dented their campaign with McCullum and his staff desperate to find a way out.

This will be an interesting encounter as both sides come with different skill sets and contrasting points of strength. For the Knights, their batting has fared pretty decently while their bowlers are still to find their momentum. For the Titans, they have some exciting bowling in their shed but their batting at times has begged a few questions.

Venue Watch:

The surface in Navi Mumbai has so far produced a fine balance between the bat and the ball. With the needle still bending towards the batters, the bowlers have managed to eke out pretty decent performances here. The pitch has a fine undertone of green, that conjures bounce and carry in the first half of the game for the fast bowlers. For the spinners, it is usually in the second half of the game, where there will be a decent degree of turn. However, with the game being an afternoon one, there won’t be any involvement of dew, that would keep the contest evenly balanced.

Squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer, Pat Cummins, Abhijeet Tomar, Sam Billings, Aaron Finch, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammed Nabi, Aman Khan, Umesh Yadav, Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Chamika Karunaratne, Baba Indrajith, Ashok Sharma, Pratham Singh.

Gujarat Titans:

Hardik Pandya (c), Matthew Wade (wk), Rashid Khan (vc), Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, David Miller, Mohammed Shami, Varun Aaron, Lockie Ferguson, Jayant Yadav, Dominic Drakes, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Pradeep Sangwan, Alzarri Joseph, Noor Ahmad, R Sai Kishore, Darshan Nalkande, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudarshan, Yash Dayal.

Match Details:

Gujarat Titans vs Kolkata Knight Riders

Venue: Dr. DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

Date: 23rd April 2022

Time: 3:30 PM IST