Kolkata Knight Riders are 2-time champions whereas Delhi Daredevils have never won the coveted crown. This time around their big stars are missing, yet they are putting up a great show. They have won their last two encounters and are beaming with confidence. Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra have put up a good show. KKR on the other hand look very balanced in all aspects. If there is a loophole with the KKR juggernaut, it is their death overs bowling, they have suffered in that department. Gautam Gambhir like always has been consistent and been among the runs. There are question marks over will Shakib play or not, as he is a value player.
Knight Riders have won 10 out of the 17 matches between the two sides. At Feroz Shah Kotla, Daredevils’ home ground, Knight Riders have won four out of six matches. KKR will have to be vary about the dangerous Samson and Morris. It will be interesting to see who partners Gautam Gambhir at the top of the order, will he persist with Sunil Narine or will he go back to basics with Robin Uthappa. For certain, whichever team wins the toss will field first.
Likely XIs
Delhi Daredevils: 1 Sanju Samson, 2 Sam Billings, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Karun Nair, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Corey Anderson, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Zaheer Khan (capt), 11 Shahbaz Nadeem
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Colin de Grandhomme/Rovman Powell, 8 Chris Woakes/Shakib Al Hasan, 9 Kuldeep Yadav 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Trent Boult
