The Delhi Capitals who are at second position at the leagues’ table will be facing the fourth team of the IPL 2021- the Kolkata Knight Riders. It will be the 41st match of this season and will be played at Sharjah where both the teams will face each other.
The KKR started the second phase with two wins but losing to the CSK by two wickets last Sunday.
On the other hand, Rishab Pant’s blue army is nearly through to the playoffs as they’ve managed to win eight out of ten games. Previously defeating the Rajasthan Royals despite Samson’s unbeaten 70.
KKR vs DC head to head
Kolkata has faced Delhi on 27 occasions in IPL with KKR winning 14 of those encounters. Delhi Capitals have also won 12 games while one match had no result. Both of their highest and lowest scores against each other are marginally similar, therefore a sense of serious competition prevails whenever these both clash.
Also, the last time Kolkata faced Delhi, DC defeated them by eight wickets at the Dubai International Cricket stadium.
Players to look for in Delhi
It is seen how the continuous positive efforts from both the top-order batters as well as the bowlers from DC are helping them progress along with the competition.
Shikar Dhawan is seen to be in super form, he was the orange cup owner until yesterday when Samson from RR surpassed his record. Dhawan will try to recapture his territory of being no. 1 since the start of this season of IPL. Iyer’s 90 runs with the bat playing two matches will also act as a confidence booster for the classy Indian batsmen.
During the last game, it was seen that even both the in-form openers from DC failed, it was Shreyas Iyer along with Pant who took the responsibility with the bat.
We expect all the three top-order batters from DC to perform at their peak today.
Avesh Khan from Delhi has been doing tremendously good with the ball. The leading wicket-taker for Delhi. He is well supported by the class bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Axar Patel. These three are seen to be pretty consistent with the ball for Delhi and we’d expect them to shine for today considering their recent stats.
The extreme pacer Nortje is also seen to be troubling batsmen this season. But considering Sharjah’s advantageous spin track we’ve considered the above three bowlers for today.
Players to look for in Kolkata
KKR is also progressing along with the league due to the collective efforts put in order by their players. The collective efforts of their batters made them special for this season of the IPL. We’ve included Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, and Venkatesh Iyer from KKR in the list of potential performers for today looking at their stats.
With the ball, we’re expecting Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, and Andre Russell to strike for the KKRs today. All three players have been doing exceptionally well for KKR. Chakravarthy is expected to continue with his economic yet effective bowling while Krishna and Russell are expected to trouble batsmen with their variations in fast bowling.
What can we expect from KKR vs DC?
It is going to be a thriller encounter between these two in-form franchises. Both will try to win this important fixture as both would certainly like to move top of the table considering both are already at fourth and second spot respectively.
If the Capitals win this encounter they are surely moving ahead towards the play-offs. Also, looking at the pitch in Sharjah it has been slightly advantageous for the spinners, and also batting has been tough. With a balanced batting and bowling line-up, both the teams are expected to head towards a promising clash.
Probable XI for KKR vs DC
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna.
Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan.