Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders meet in Sharjah in the second match of the double-header on Saturday. With big-hitting prowess in both the sides, the encouter promises to be a high-scoring one.
While Delhi Capitals faced their first defeat of the season earlier this week against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, KKR are on a two-match winning run, following impressive performances against SRH and RR.
Take a look at some of the key stats ahead of the game:
Head-to-head tie: Although Kolkata Knight Riders only narrowly stand ahead of Delhi Capitals in their rivalry meetings with 13 wins in 25 T20 meetings, Shreyas Iyer's side have emerged victorious in their last three meetings in IPL. Delhi had even beaten Kolkata in their only previous meeting in the UAE soil, winning by four wickets in Dubai.
At the venue: The two teams are yet to play a game at the Sharjah.
Crucial stats:
- In the both the matches that were played at Sharjah, the scores for either sides went beyond 200, including Rajasthan Royals pulling off a record chase of 224. The scoring rate at the venue is 10.88 with sixes being struck every 7.8 balls.
- Andre Russell loves to bat against Delhi. He has a strike rate of 198.14 and hits sixes every 5.1 balls. However, Delhi would love to reserve Kagiso Rabad to stop his onslaught. The South African can stop his carnage by delivery short balls against whom Russell has struggled immensely being dismissed 14 times in his career. Russell has also being dismissed by googlies every six balls since the start of 2018, hence Amit Mishra will be another option.
- Mishra can also be reserved for Dinesh Karthik who has been dismissed by a leggie twice this season in seven balls for just eight runs. In fact, his strike rate of 125.6 against this variety is the least in his IPL career since 2018.
- Sunil Narine will be the key bowler for KKR against Delhi. He holds a good record against Shreyas Iyer (eights runs in eight balls), Shikhar Dhawan (49 runs, 50 balls, two dismissals), Prithvi Shaw (six runs, five balls).
