On Monday (May 8), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will play against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the 53rd game of IPL 2023 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. With four wins in ten games, the Knight Riders are in 8th place and must win their remaining four games to have any chance of making the playoffs. In their previous game, the Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by defending their total of 171 runs and winning by five runs, with Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh playing important innings. Varun Chakravarthy defended nine runs in the final over and won the Player of the Match award.
The Punjab Kings have won five out of ten games and are currently placed 7th in the points table. In their last match against the Mumbai Indians, they scored 214 runs in their 20 overs but still ended up losing the game. Liam Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma were the key contributors for the team, adding 119 runs for the fourth wicket. After losing an early wicket, Mumbai were helped by their middle-order batters to chase down the target with six wickets and 7 balls to spare. Arshdeep Singh ended up conceding 66 runs from his 3.5 overs, equalling the record for most runs conceded in an innings by a Kings bowler.
KKR and PBKS have faced each other 31 times in IPL so far. KKR have emerged victorious in 20 matches, whereas PBKS have won only 11. The Kings have won three of the last five encounters with the Knight Riders, including the first game of this season. In that game, PBKS scored 191 runs for the loss of five wickets and won by seven runs via the DLS method.
PROBABLE PLAYING XI
Kolkata Knight Riders
RK Singh, JJ Roy, N Rana(C), AD Russell, SP Narine, VR Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(wk), Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, H Rana
BENCH : Mandeep Singh, Tim Southee, UT Yadav, AS Roy, Narayan Jagadeesan, D Wiese, Suyash Sharma, S Iyer, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, LH Ferguson, K Khejroliya, , Johnson Charles
Punjab Kings
Shikhar Dhawan(C), Shahrukh Khan, SM Curran, R Dhawan, MW Short, LS Livingstone, P Simran Singh, JM Sharma(wk), RD Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh
BENCH : B Rajapaksa, Sikandar Raza, Nathan Ellis, A Taide, Harpreet Singh, Mohit Rathee, Shivam Singh, Rajangad Bawa, Baltej Singh, K Rabada, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Gurnoor Brar
PITCH REPORT
Over the past three years, the Eden Gardens pitch in Kolkata has been the venue for 23 T20 games. The average first innings score in these matches has been 176 runs. It is anticipated that the pitch will be conducive to batting in the upcoming game. The pacers have been particularly successful here, accounting for 67% of the wickets taken. Conversely, the spinners have only managed to take 33% of the wickets at this location over the past three years.
