Kings XI Punjab will host the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 44th Match of the IPL 2018. Both of these teams are coming into the match after facing a loss in their respective last game. Thus, both of them will like to get back to winning ways.
However, when these two teams had met each other early in the season, Kings XI Punjab had cruised to nine-wicket win via the Duckworth Lewis Method. Thus, Punjab will like to repeat their previous performance against Kolkata Knight Riders. Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik-led team will seek the revenge.
It is a crucial junction in the tournament, and both teams would like to bring out their A game to the table. Kolkata cannot afford any more hiccups and Men in Purple will prefer to strengthen their hopes of playoff stages.
The visitors had to face a huge loss in the last match against reigning champions, Mumbai Indians. Such type of a defeat can aggravate the confidence of any team. Thus, Dinesh Karthik will have his job cut out in lifting the shoulders of his teammates.
For the Kings XI Punjab, their batting has looked out of sorts in the last couple of matches. KL Rahul is the lone warrior, and the right-hander should be provided with support from the other end. The middle order needs to step up their game in the crucial upcoming matches.
Photo Credit: IPL.
Weather Report
It is going be another hot day in Indore with the temperature expected to hover around 44 Degree Celsius. As the match is going to be Day game, it is going to make the job of the players a lot tougher.
Pitch Report:
The Pitch is expected to break in the hot conditions, and thus the spinners will come in handy. A target of around 160 is going to be a par score on the track.
Head to Head
Kolkata has an advantage in head-to-head, as they have won 14 matches while Kings XI Punjab has won only eight. However, it should be noted it can be a hyperbole statement if we give more importance to a head to head contest especially in a format like T20.
Kings XI Punjab Predicted XI: Chris Gayle, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Yuvraj Singh, Manoj Tiwary, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Andrew Tye, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Rahman.
Kolkata Knight Riders Predicted XI: Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (c / wk), Andre Russell, Mitchell Johnson, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.