After facing two successive defeats, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) would be looking for a change in their fortunes when they take on their former Skipper Gautam Gambhir’s side Delhi Daredevils in today’s IPL battle at the Eden Gardens.
KKR sent their former captain Gambhir, who led KKR win titles in 2012 and 2014, to auction pool earlier this year.
Delhi Daredevils are coming into this game with a victory over Mumbai Indians in their last encounter. Today they would be hoping to make it two in two.
The air smells familiar, faces look friendly, from ‘Gauti paaji’ all of a sudden I’ve become ‘Gautam Da’…..am I at my erstwhile home? @DelhiDaredevils @ipl @bcci #DilDilli #Dhadkega pic.twitter.com/WiAvZaYeEe
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) 16 April 2018
Dinesh Karthik led KKR have an advantage over Delhi in their previous 7 encounters at Eden Gardens. KKR has won 6 while DD only tasted success in one game.
A dominant record against @DelhiDaredevils at Home _
What do you think #KnightRiders, can we make it 7__? #KKRvDD #KKRHaiTaiyaar #IPL2018 pic.twitter.com/oR8oaKC3zD
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) 16 April 2018
Before the start of the high-voltage encounter, let’s look at some interesting facts.
- Delhi skipper Gambhir needs another half-century to surpass Mumbai Indian Rohit Sharma’s run tally of 4251 to become the No 3 batsman with most runs in IPL history so far. Chennai Super Kings’ Suresh Raina is at No 1 with 4558 runs under his bag.
- KKR’s big hitter of the ball, Andre Russell needs 66 runs more to be the highest run scorer in this IPL season. If he scores more than 66 he’ll get the purple cap. Currently, Rajasthan Royals’ batsman Sanju Samson is at No 1 with 178 runs.
- For DD, Rishabh Pant is at No 1 with most fours in IPL 2018 so far. He has so far cleared the ropes 13 times. In an overall tally of the most number of fours this season, Pant is at No 4. Sunrisers Hyderabad’s opening batsman, Shikhar Dhawan is leading with 22 boundaries. For Kolkata, Chris Lynn is leading the tally with 12 fours.
- KKR’s bowling all-rounder, Sunil Narine needs to pick 4 more wickets to be the No 1 bowler with most wickets so far in IPL 2018. Currently, he is at No 9 with 4 wickets in his kitty. Mumbai Indians spinner Mayank Markande is leading with 7 wickets.
- KKR’s Andre Russel is at No 1 in ‘Longest Six’ tally in IPL 2018 so far with 105.00 meters.
- Match No 13 of the IPL 2018 will kick-start at 8 PM IST. The toss will be held at 7: 30 PM IST.
It has been a challenging week for our #Knights, but it’s just the beginning of what promises to be an enthralling campaign!
_ Here’s a quick round-up of how our week went.#IPL2018 #KKRHaiTaiyaar #KKRvDD pic.twitter.com/wvs71OGCI7
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) 16 April 2018
Teams:
KKR: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Dinesh Karthik (captain), Robin Uthappa (vice-captain), Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson, Shubman Gill, Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi, Tom Curran.
DD: Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Chris Morris, Glenn Maxwell, Kagiso Rabada, Amit Mishra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Mohammad Shami, Gautam Gambhir (captain), Trent Boult, Colin Munro, Daniel Christian, Jason Roy, Naman Ojha, Prithvi Shaw, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Avesh Khan, Abhishek Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Harshal Patel, Manjot Kalra, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sayan Ghosh.
