Eliminator, Delhi: Preview
AB de Villiers performed a rescue act for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and got them into the final last night, at the expense of Gujarat Lions. So the winner of this clash between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad will face-off Gujarat Lions in the semi-final.
Sunrisers Hyderabad appear to be the in-form team of the IPL 2016. They have an excellent bowling attack led by the brilliant Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh. They have an above average batting line-up, with Captain David Warner in great form, and supported ably by the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Yuvraj Singh and Kane Williamson.
They were beaten earlier by Kolkata Knight Riders on a raging turner of a track at the Eden Gardens. The Feroz Shah Kotla track has the reputation of being friendly to spinners, so it is likely that they might struggled against KKR spinners here as well.
Kolkata Knight Riders will have their most important player back in the side – Andre Russell – who missed out a couple of games due to an injury. Russell is the perfect T20 player – he bowls with true pace and accuracy and he is also capable of winning matches with the bat. There just isn’t another player like Russell anywhere in the world.
Russell is also a global T20 specialist. He has so far won the Bangladesh Premier League, Pakistan Super League, Big Bash League and World T20 over the last 6 months. So he would desperately want to win the biggest T20 competition of them all, the Indian Premier League.
But there is more to KKR than just Russell. They have a couple of powerful batsmen in Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan, both in the form of their life. Pandey has been a sensational player for them, in particular, and he looks set to be a real super star for India in the years to come.
Sunil Narine, it appears, is getting back his groove, which is refreshing to see. Narine was out of the game for a year because of suspect action and is back with a much modified action. His bowling is not as effective as in the past, but he is still a very good bowler, who is capable of winning matches on his day.
We look forward to an exciting clash later tonight. The loser will be out of the IPL 2016, that’s why it is called an “Eliminator”.
The Teams
Sunrisers Hyderabad : 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson/Eoin Morgan, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Moises Henriques, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Barinder Sran, 10 Karn Sharma/Ashish Reddy/Bipul Sharma, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
Kolkata Knight Riders : 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Robin Uthappa (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Shakib Al Hasan, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Morne Morkel, 9 Kuldeep Yadav/Piyush Chawla, 10 Sunil Narine, 11 Ankit Rajpoot
Match Conditions
The Feroz Shah Kotla track is one of the friendliest ones in India for spinners. It is also known to assist good batting, and with both sides boasting of a number of classy batsmen, we expect a lot of runs to be scored. Showers have been forecast for Wednesday afternoon, but shouldn’t affect the match in any manner.
Watch Kolkata Knight Riders take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator tonight at 8:00 pm LIVE on Sony Six!
