Kolkata Knight Riders are second in the IPL 2017 and will look to seal their position in the top two if they were to win this match against Kings XI Punjab.
The Punjab team will have to win all of their remaining three matches in order to qualify for the playoffs. They are fifth in the points table as of now, just behind Sunrisers Hyderabad, and have a really good chance of making it.
So far in the IPL, KKR have a 14-6 lead over Kings XI Punjab. They have won their last eight games against Kings XI since 2014. Earlier this season, KKR won because of a brilliant batting performance by Sunil Narine, who has been sensational in this tournament, getting a 50 off just 15 balls in the last match against RCB.
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Kings XI Punjab lost their match to Gujarat Lions by 6 wickets, but have beaten Royal Challengers Bangalore by 19 runs and Delhi Daredevils by 10 wickets. Kolkata Knight Riders beat Royal Challengers by 6 wickets. Well, everybody beats RCB these days! But they lost to Rising Pune by 4 wickets, who have been doing very well and to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 48 runs.
Kings XI will be without opening batsman Hashim Amla, who has hit two centuries this season. Amla will leave to join the South African tea, along with David Miller. They have decent options in Darren Sammy and New Zealand fast bowler Matt Henry, but they are not exactly like-for-like replacements. Australian allrounder Marcus Stoinis is out of IPL 2017 with a shoulder injury.
For KKR, Robin Uthappa is one the way to recovery. He may be rested for this game. Australian fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile could be available for selection, but this will be decided just before the match.
The Teams:
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Manan Vohra, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Glenn Maxwell (capt), 5 Gurkeerat Singh , 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Axar Patel, 8 Matt Henry/Darren Sammy, 9 Mohit Sharma, 10 Varun Aaron/T Natarajan, 11 Sandeep Sharma
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 4 Robin Uthappa or Sheldon Jackson (wk), 5 Manish Pandey, 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 Suryakumar Yadav, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Kuldeep Yadav
Watch Kings XI Punjab play Kolkata Knight Riders tonight at 8 pm live on Sony Six!
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