The Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are playing each other in Match No. 15 of the current Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Both teams enter the match fresh off crushing defeats to the Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians, respectively. It makes sense that both teams would want to give it their all.
Toss Update
SRH’s Pat Cummins correctly called and won the toss. He opted to field first. SRH would aim at limiting the hosts to a chaseable total with their bowling attack which includes the likes of Cummins himself, in addition to Harshal Patel, Simarjeet Singh, Mohammed Shami, and Zeeshan Ansari. On the other hand, KKR would be keen on posting a sizeable score on the board.
Spencer Johnson not included in KKR’s XI; Travis Head to feature as Impact Sub for SRH
Spencer Johnson was said to have been replaced by Moeen Ali. The Australian quick was pretty decent in KKR’s encounter against MI, having conceded only 14 runs in his two overs. However, he was quite expensive in the defending champions’ opening couple of games. Moeen was extremely miserly in the sole game he played against Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati. With SRH fielding three left-handed batters including IPL debutant, Kamindu Mendis, Moeen will have a crucial role to play during his spell.
What did the captains say?
Ajinkya Rahane, KKR skipper
Looks good, I’m really happy with the pitch, we were also bowling first. It will suit our spinners, at home, you should get what you want, but we’ll need to assess the situation quickly with the bat. We sat together (after the last match), discussed how we can get better, but this is a long tournament and it was one bad day. Moeen Ali comes in place of Spencer Johnson. Regardless of all plans, we’ll have to come out and do well in the middle.
Pat Cummins, SRH skipper
We will bowl. Looks like a good surface, but I’m terrible at reading it. They outplayed us in the final (last year), but a bit of change in both sides. We’ve spoken about our batting, we’ve been at our best while being aggressive, but we can’t be reckless. He has been amazing (on Aniket Verma), doesn’t get unfazed by any situation. Coordination is the key (with the coaching team), but we do have a clear idea.
Playing XIs
KKR: Quinton de Kock (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Impact Substitutes: Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia
SRH: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Kamindu Mendis, Pat Cummins (c), Harshal Patel, Simarjeet Singh, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari
Impact Substitutes: Abhinav Manohar, Jaydev Unadkat, Travis Head, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder
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India
