Kolkata Knight Riders will square off against Punjab Kings in the 53rd match of Indian Premier League 2023. Both Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings are top teams of IPL and have been playing since season 1. Punjab Kings has a slightly better IPL 2023 as compared to KKR after ten games. Punjab Kings won five games in IPL 2023 and lost the same number of matches. On the other side, KKR lost six games and won only four. Both teams faced each other in the 2nd match of IPL 2023, where Punjab Kings won by seven runs.
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Match Preview
Kolkata Knight Riders missed their key players in the earlier matches due to injuries and the national duties of overseas players. But, now KKR has full strength squad to face any tough opposition. The opening duo of English batter Jason Roy and Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz can give the team a blistering start. Both batters have had a few brilliant innings in IPL 2023. Venkatesh Iyer holds the one-down position. He scored one hundred in this league and a few other essential innings. Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh are the best players in the middle order for KKR. The batting lineup of KKR has these three batters who consistently performed in IPL 2023. Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and Shardul Thakur can also bat down the order.
The bowling lineup of KKR struggled to perform in IPL 2023. The experience fast bowlers Umesh Yadav and Lockie Ferguson failed miserably in this season of IPL. KKR had high hopes for these two bowlers, but they could not deliver as per the expectations of their team management. The team used Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora in the last two games, who bowled well. Andre Russell and Shardul Thakur are the other two fast-bowling options who have shown satisfactory performances. The spin bowling department has veteran Sunil Narine along with two youngsters, Varun Chakravarthy, and Suyash Sharma. Sunil Narine has an on-and-off season. But Varun and Sharma performed exceptionally well in this IPL. The success of KKR depends upon the middle-order batters and Varun and Sharma’s spin bowling.
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Punjab Kings started the season well, but an injury to Captain Shikhar Dhawan halted the team’s momentum. The team came back to the top performance after the return of Shikhar Dhawan. Prabhsimran Singh is the partner of Dhawan in the opening slot. The batting strength lies on the shoulder of Dhawan, who scored runs in almost every game. Liam Livingstone entered the middle order and showed his skills as the hard-hitting batter comes in the last two games. Sikandar Raza and Matthew Short replaced each other consistently in their respective matches to bring balance to the squad. Jitesh Sharma is the best batter on the team in the middle order. Sam Curran played a few outstanding knocks in the lower middle order to support his team.
The bowling lineup of Punjab depends upon the brilliant bowling of Arshdeep Singh. The left arm quickly took wickets regularly and bowled well in all games except the previous game against Mumbai. Sam Curran and Kagiso Rabada played many games for the team but could not impress with their bowling. Nathan Ellis bowled better spells than both Rabada and Curran. The spin bowling department of Punjab is weak. Rahul Chahar is the specialist spinner in the team who could not take wickets in IPL 2023. Harpreet Brar played three games, and even he could not impress with his bowling. Livingstone, Raza, and Short are a few bowling options, but Punjab did not use them properly this season.
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Match Details
Venue = Eden Gardens Kolkata
Date and Time = 08 May 2023 | 07:30 PM IST
Pitch Report
Eden Gardens pitch is batting supportive as most of the games in IPL 2023 saw batters dominate the bowlers. Spin bowlers can extract some movement from the pitch. But, it is not enough to trouble the batters. So, a score of above 200 is possible in this game. The team batting 2nd has won most of the games on this ground. So Captain can choose to bowl first after winning the toss.
Weather Report
Kolkata will have a high temperature on the match day. There will be small patches of clouds in the sky, but rain chances are negligible. High humidity can trouble the players on the field.
Head to Head in IPL
Total Matches = 31
Kolkata Knight Riders won = 20
Punjab Kings won = 11
Both teams have played 13 matches on Eden Gardens. KKR won 9 games out of 11.
Probable Playing 11s
The impact player’s rule will allow every team to put extra players in the team, which they can use during the match. Here are playing 11s of both teams, along with impact players.
- Punjab Kings
Shikhar Dhawan, Prabhsimran Singh, Matthew Short/Sikandar Raza, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sam Curran, M Shahrukh Khan, Rishi Dhawan, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis/Kagiso Rabada
- Kolkata Knight Riders
Jason Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Suyash Sharma/Anukul Roy
Key Players
Shikhar Dhawan is the best batsman of the Punjab Kings, as he scored 292 runs in 7 matches. Jitesh Sharma is the 2nd highest scorer of the team with 239 runs. English allrounder Liam Livingstone recently joined the team and played an outstanding knock of 82 runs in the last match. Arshdeep Singh is the best bowler in Punjab, as he took 16 wickets in IPL 2023. Nathan Ellis is the 2nd best batter with nine wickets.
Rinku Singh is the top scorer of KKR, with 316 runs in 10 matches. Captain Nitish Rana scored 275 runs, and Venkatesh Iyer scored 303 runs in IPL 2023. Jason Roy also showed good form in the four games he played so far. Varun Chakravarthy is the top wicket-taker with 14 wickets. Suyash Sharma is 2nd best bowler on the team, as he took nine wickets.
Match Prediction
Punjab Kings has a better record this year, but Eden Gardens is Kolkata’s home ground. KKR has a better chance of winning this game. So, KKR will win this game.
