Rising Pune Supergiant have been doing very well in the IPL recently, and have won their last three matches. They beat the league leaders Mumbai Indians by three runs, which was remarkable, thanks to brilliant death over bowling by Ben Stokes.
They beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets, because of a Dhoni special, getting the win off the last ball and defeated RCB by 27 runs. This has propelled Rising Pune to the top four for the first time in the IPL 2017, which is very good indeed.
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Kolkata Knight Riders are doing very well too. They lie second on the points table and there is a chance they could go first by winning this game. They had a spectacular win against RCB in their last game, dismissing the Bangalore team for just 49 runs and winning by 82 runs. They lost unexpectedly to Gujarat Lions by four wickets and beat Delhi Daredevils by four wickets.
Knight Riders won’t have Nathan Coulter-Nile in the line-up, though, who has been so good for them. Coulter-Nile was instrumental in their win against Royal Challengers Bangalore, dismissing them for the lowest total in IPL history. The fast bowler has been rested to manage his workload more effectively
This means Trent Boult could get a game, even as Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan struggles to get a game. Colin de Grandhomme, the New Zealand all-rounder has not done much with the bat but took 3 wickets for just 2 runs in the last game, and is likely to be retained because of that.
For KKR, the experiment of playing Sunil Narine as a pinch hitter at the top of the order has paid off handsomely and is expected to be continued. Narine has played some smashing shots right from the first ball and it seems the opposition bowlers have no clue as to how to stop him.
The Teams
Rising Pune Supergiant: 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Ben Stokes, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Manoj Tiwary, 7 Dan Christian, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Imran Tahir, 11 Jaydev Unadkat
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Trent Boult/Shakib Al Hasan, 11 Kuldeep Yadav
Watch Rising Pune Supergiant play Kolkata Knight Riders tonight at 8 pm live on Sony Six!
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