It’s time for the business end of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are up against each other in Qualifier 1 of the tournament. The first game of the playoffs between the teams is taking place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday (21st May).
Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad faced earlier in the league stage as well. The fixture between the teams was a nail-biter as it went down the wire and saw the Shreyas Iyer-led side winning the game by just 4 runs. However, the pressure of playoffs is a different thing altogether and whoever handles it well, wins.
The head-to-head record between KKR and SRH is pretty one-sided. The Kolkata Knight Riders have been extremely dominant as they have won 17 games out of the 26 fixtures between the teams while the SRH emerged victorious in 9 games.
Kolkata Knight Riders ended the league stage at the No.1 position as they won 9 games from the 14 they played and lost just 3 games, which speaks a lot about their performance. On the other hand, the washout in the game between KKR and RR ensured SRH took the second spot in the points table.
The KKR vs SRH game promises to be an enthralling clash because both teams played a dominant brand in the league stage. While KKR in their last playing game defeated Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad crushed Punjab Kings in their last match.
The winner of the game will advance to the final while the loser will have another chance to make it to the summit clash. However, both teams would be eager to win the game and get some desired rest under their belt ahead of the final.
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Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first in the game against KKR. He talked about the positive attitude inside the dressing room and while speaking at the toss, he explained:
“We gonna have a bat, looks like a good wicket and expect a high-scoring game. The batting group has been amazing for us and hopefully more of the same tonight. We are playing pretty much the same eleven as the last game.”
KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer on the other hand stated that they wanted to field first as they wanted to see what they wanted to chase. He also talked about the pressure that will be there and reflected on the team’s season.
“I would have loved to bowl. I had a chat with the curator and he said it’s a mixed soil, let’s see how it plays, hoping for a good game. Important that we keep the momentum going and stay in the present. Great achievement and everyone is proud of it, we are taking one match at a time and we need to be positive about what’s going to happen here. We are going with the same team.”
KKR vs SRH: Impact Players
KKR: KS Bharat, Nitish Rana, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Anukul Roy
SRH: Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Sanvir Singh, Jayden Unadkat, Umran Malik
KKR vs SRH: Playing XIs
Kolkata Knight Riders(Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, T Natarajan
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