KKR are almost assured of a place in the final four if they keep their current form going. After a shocking loss to Delhi Daredevils (DD) a couple of matches ago it looked like there would be an encore against RCB, but Russell and Pathan ensured that they took KKR over the line. A loss would have meant that KKR would lose their hard-earned momentum, and as has been seen in past editions of IPL, a couple of losses can result in further defeats as the tournament progresses.
Sadly for KXIP, their victory over GL was more about GL having a terrible day than them doing anything outstanding. Under new captain Murali Vijay, KXIP scored a moderate total. However, the top four GL batsmen suffered a rare poor day in the office, and that resulted in the rest of the team unravelling. KXIP will take heart from that victory, but they will also realise that they will need to do much more as a team to win regularly.
KKR have immense depth in both batting and bowling. That depth was on full display a few days ago. With Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir both being in good form, KKR have rarely had to rely on the middle-order, but even then we have seen some excellent innings played by Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Pathan, and Russell already in the tournament. The additional support provided by Shakib Al Hasan, Chris Lynn, and Rajgopal Sathish provides KKR with a settled team.
KXIP unfortunately have been hampered by the loss of Shaun Marsh, who will miss the rest of IPL 9 with an injury. With David Miller and Glenn Maxwell being in poor form, it was Marsh who looked by far the best KXIP batsman. It is still unsure who will be his replacement in the squad. In his absence the rest of the batting will need to take some responsibility. Mitchell Johnson has looked ineffective as well, which has further pushed back KXIP.
On the whole, the match ought to be a fairly straightforward one for KKR. They are by far the better team and in much better form. It will be wrong to write off KXIP completely, but given the way both teams have played so far, it ought to be an easy win for KKR at home.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa (wk), Sheldon Jackson, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Brad Hogg, Chris Lynn, Morne Morkel, Shakib Al Hasan, Jaydev Unadkat, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, John Hastings, Jason Holder, Colin Munro, Rajgopal Sathish, Manan Sharma.
Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Murali Vijay (c), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchel Johnson, Kyle Abott, Farhaan Behardien, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Mohit Sharma, Gurukeerat Singh, Manan Vohra, Sandeep Sharma, Shaun Marsh, Akshar Patel, Rishi Dhawan, Marcus Stoinis, Swapnil Singh, Shardul Thakur, Anureet Singh, K C Carriappa, Nikhil Naik, Arman Jaffar, Pradeep Shahu.
Time: 20:00 IST | 14:30 GMT
(Shiamak Unwalla, a reporter with CricketCountry, is an animal lover and comic, film and TV geek. A fast bowler at heart, he loves watching a good, low-scoring game of cricket. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)
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