Abu Dhabi : After an 8-wicket whipping at the hands of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in their last encounter, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will look to bounce back to winning ways when they face off against the Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 42nd match of IPL 2020 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday (October 24).
The Knights have endured a bag of mixed results so far with five wins and an equal number of losses from their 10 games. And, with the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab hot on their heels in the race for 4th spot, KKR will need to pick up a win today.
The Capitals, on the other hand, will want to take guard against any slip-ups in their last four games despite their all-but assured place in the playoffs. DC began their campaign with five wins from six games and looked almost unstoppable, but since then, losses to the Mumbai Indians and KXIP have sounded the alarms in their squad.
If DC manage to win this Kolkata vs Delhi clash today, they will jump to the top of the IPL 2020 points table, while a win for KKR will help them move one step closer to sealing the 4th spot and with that, a spot in the playoffs.
The last time these two sides met, the Eoin Morgan-Rahul Tripathi pair almost pulled off a run-heist with some outstanding big-hitting during the slog overs. However, Anrich Nortje removed Morgan and less than an over later, Marcus Stoinis castled Tripathi to bring about an 18-run win for DC.
Three weeks since, a lot has changed for both sides. Dinesh Karthik stepped down from captaincy and handed over the responsibility to Morgan, while Andre Russell’s poor form and a spate of injuries sidelined him for their encounter against RCB.
KKR have won only one of their three games since Morgan’s appointment as captain, and the absence of seasoned all-rounder Sunil Narine has undoubtedly affected their campaign.
DC, on the other hand, have been the beneficiaries of Shikhar Dhawan’s blazing form, with the southpaw having notched up two centuries and two more half-centuries in the last four matches he’s played for the Shreyas Iyer-led side.
However, poor returns from Prithvi Shaw has marred their rather colourful campaign off late, and the youngster will need to get back to scoring ways and support his senior opening partner.
KKR, though, are yet to nail down their settled XI, and an injury to star foreign import Russell has certainly compounded their woes. The bowling unit looks a bit inexperienced apart from the Pat Cummins-Lockie Ferguson power – duo. With Kuldeep Yadav unable to find his feet in IPL 2020, KKR have a whole lot of thinking to do before they step onto the field against DC. And thus an interesting encounter is waiting for us on this Saturday.
Kolkata Knight Riders :Rahul Tripathi, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Eoin Morgan (C), Andre Russell/Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav/Siddhesh Lad.
Delhi Capitals :
Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer (C), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravi Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Tushar Deshpande.
