Kolkata Knight Riders will face off Punjab Kings in the eighth match of the ongoing Indian Premier League at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Friday.
Kolkata Knight Riders won their opening match against Chennai Super Kings but lost against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their last match.
KKR bowlers have impressed so far in both of their matches but their batting unit needs to step up. Umesh Yadav and Tim Southee were right on the money against RCB and they would want to continue the good show. However, KKR would want more from their top order which hasn’t delivered the goods for them. Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana will look to contribute for the two-time champions.
KKR showed the fight with the ball against RCB and Shreyas Iyer was proud that his team didn’t throw the towel and kept fighting till the last over.
On the other hand, Punjab Kings got off a good start as they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets. The Mohali-based franchise was able to chase down 206 runs after a collective team effort. West Indies’ all-rounder Odean Smith was the star of the show for them as he scored a fine cameo of 8-ball 25 to get his team home against RCB.
Thus, the Mayank Agarwal-led team will look to continue their winning impetus in the tournament. However, Punjab Kings will want to come up with a better bowling performance as they had conceded 205 runs against RCB.
Match Prediction: Kolkata Knight Riders will enter the contest as favorites as they have a better balance in their squad.
KKR Predicted Playing XI: Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer (C), Sam Billings, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav.
PBKS Predicted Playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal (c), Bhanuka Rajapaksa (WK), Liam Livingstone, Raj Bawa, Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Sandeep Sharma.
