The Indian Premier League's (IPL) 17th season got off to a great start. The first game took place on Friday following the opening ceremony between the reigning champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Today is the first double header of the tournament—two matches in a single day.
Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals will play their first game in Mohali at 3:30 p.m. The 2016 winners Sunrisers Hyderabad will play the two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders in the second game. We shall learn about the second match in the story.
For the first time, both teams' captains will assume leadership roles.
In 2008, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) participated in the inaugural IPL match. whereby the club scored 158 runs thanks to an inning performed by Brendon McCullum. The squad has since won the championship twice, in 2012 and 2014, and finished second in 2021. At this point, Shreyas Iyer, who will be leading KKR for the first time, will captain the squad. He was Delhi's captain once.
Conversely, the IPL champion Sunrisers Hyderabad began play in 2013. The squad from Hyderabad used to be known as Deccan Chargers, and they were the 2009 champions captained by Adam Gilchrist. Following this, David Warner won the team championship in 2016. Australia's Pat Cummins will now take charge of Hyderabad, and it is his job to win the squad a championship after eight years. For the first time, Cummins will skipper the IPL team.
Russell leads Hyderabad in wicket-taking.
Kolkata's Andre Russell has 17 wickets against Sunrisers Hyderabad. This is Kolkata's highest. Sunil Narine, who had to play 22 matches, is the player who comes in second with 11 wickets.
Among the batsmen, vice captain Nitish Rana is the best. In 15 games, he has 537 runs scored. Manish Pandey has 351 runs in 14 matches after him. Even now, these four players are capable of excelling against Hyderabad.
Against Kolkata, Bhuvneshwar picks up a lot of wickets.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the leading bowler for Hyderabad, has taken 32 wickets against Kolkata in 27 games. This is the IPL's highest. Bhuvi has to walk if Hyderabad hopes to win this afternoon. Thangarasu Natarajan has collected 11 wickets in just 7 matches after him.
Among the batsmen, Mayank Agarwal and Rahul Tripathi are the best. Against Kolkata, both have scored 308–308 runs. Additionally, both have 2-2 fifty versus KKR.
Head-to-head, Kolkata is ahead.
There have been 25 IPL games between Hyderabad and Kolkata thus far. Kolkata triumphed in 15 and Hyderabad in 9. Between the two, there was also a tie.
Even worse is Hyderabad's record in Kolkata's Eden Gardens Stadium. Out of the nine games the team played here, only three were won. Kolkata has won 47 out of 81 games, or 54% of them, at home.
The pitch in Kolkata is advantageous to bowlers who use both pace and spin. However, this was where many runs were scored previous season. The batsmen were helped by several of the pitches, but spin might win out this time. due to the fact that the home team features elite spinners like Suyyash Sharma, Varun Chakravarthy, and Sunil Narine.
Weather: There is no chance of rain on Saturday evening, but it will be hot in Kolkata. In the event that Dew falls in the second inning, the side that wins the toss will prefer to chase.
Potential starting lineups for both teams
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abdul Samad, Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins (captain), Travis Head, Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Umran Malik/Jaydev Unadkat.
Impact: Shahbaz Ahmed, Sundar Washington.
The following players represent the Kolkata Knight Riders: Mitchell Starc, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, and captain Shreyas Iyer. Venkatesh Iyer and Rahmanullah Gurbaz/Phil Salt are the wicketkeepers.
Impact: Manish Pandey, Suyyash Sharma.
