The team from the east Kolkata Knight Riders would be upbeat for sure ahead of their RPS clash. The win against RCB last night will give them a lot of confidence and RPS too will be coming in to the match with confidence after defeating table toppers Mumbai Indians. KKR will also have an opportunity to climb atop of the ladder. Kolkata Knight Riders chased 66 (D/L adjusted target) and 161 to win both at home and away against Rising Pune Supergiant in 2016.
Knight Riders will be without Nathan Coulter-Nile, who in their previous game bowled Royal Challengers Bangalore out for 49 which is the lowest total in IPL history. The 29-year old seamer has not travelled with the team to Pune, with captain Gautam Gambhir citing workload management as the reason. RPS will again look at Mahendra Singh Dhoni for a big show and KKR would be hoping their batting come good. The match will be played at the stadium in Pune hence batting second would be justified and for KKR they have to get used to the crowds as early as possible as they would not be playing at the Eden Gardens.
A ‘Double’ ton for @GautamGambhir at a ground where KKR has a 100% win record. More in a ‘Special 100’ numbers diary https://t.co/NFxXkKgrex
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 26, 2017
The likely XIs
Rising Pune Supergiant 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Ben Stokes, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Manoj Tiwary, 7 Dan Christian, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Imran Tahir, 11 Jaydev Unadkat
Kolkata Knight Riders 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Trent Boult/Shakib Al Hasan, 11 Kuldeep Yadav
