Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) face Rajasthan Royals (RR) in a crucial match no.56 of the Indian Premier League 2023 (IPL) on Thursday, May 11. Both KKR and RR have recorded five wins from 11 matches this season and will strengthen their position in the race for playoff qualification with a win in the incoming game at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Kolkata Knight Riders pulled off another thrilling win in their last game against Punjab Kings. Varun Chakravarthy's 3/26 spell restricted Punjab Kings to a total of 179/7 and then Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, and Rinku Singh shone with a bat to earn two big points. KKR are sitting in the sixth position in the points table with ten points in 11 games and need a win in the remaining three games to finish in the top four.
Rajasthan Royals suffered another disappointing defeat while defending a big total in their last game against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson ended their poor run of form with brilliant fifties to help the Royals score 214 runs while batting first. But it was not enough as bowlers struggled to contain SRH who chased the target on the innings last ball. Rajasthan Royals are on a level with Kolkata with 10 points and a healthy positive net run rate.
Match Details
Match: IPL 2023, Match 56
Venue: Eden Garden, Kolkata
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Broadcast and Live Streaming: Star Sports Network and JioCinema
Probable Playing XIs
Kolkata Knight Riders: Jason Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Suyash Sharma (Impact Player)
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Joe Root, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma, Kuldip Yadav, Devdutt Padikkal (Impact Player)
Pitch and Weather Report
The pitch at Kolkata's Eden Gardens has a batting-friendly surface in T20 cricket. The venue has the highest first innings average score in IPL this season with 205. The overall average first innings score here is 163 with teams batting second winning 47 of 82 IPL matches played here. Spinners are enjoying a comparatively good turn on the wicket but it will be a batters' game on Thursday.
There is no forecast for rain in Kolkata during the same time. Temperature is likely to hover around 33 degree Celsius during game time and will decrease to 30 at the end of game time. There is a 0% of chance of rain during the match time.
Predictions
Best Batter of the Match: Yashasvi Jaiswal
With Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson struggling for consistency, it's young Yashasvi Jaiswal who is taking responsibility to provide big totals at Rajasthan Royals. The left-handed opener is leading the scoring chart for Rajasthan and is second in the leading run-scorer chart in IPL 2023 with 477 runs from 11 innings at an average of 43.36 and a strike rate of 160.60.
Best Bowler of the Match: Yuzvendra Chahal
The Purple Cap holder entered the race for the most wickets this season as he took four wickets for 29 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the last match. Chahal is leading the bowling chart for Rajasthan Royals with 17 wickets from 11 matches at an economy rate of 8.08 in IPL 2023 so far.
Who will win the Match: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
