Kolkata Knight Riders are coming off a comfortable 18-run victory over Mumbai Indians on Saturday, a win that made them the first team to secure a playoff spot.
The Titans’ batting unit would be looking to continue their form from the last match but they face a stiff challenge in the form of KKR bowling.
In Varun Chakaravarthy (18 wickets in 12 matches), Harshit Rana (16 wickets in 10 matches), Sunil Narine and Andre Russell (both 15 wickets in 12 matches), KKR have four bowlers among the top10 wicket-takers.
Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc, despite going at 11.36 runs an over, has taken 12 wickets in 11 matches, while pacer Vaibhav Arora too has raised his level when needed for the Purple brigade.
Captain Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and rest of the Titans batting will have their task cut out. While the ones will be on the openers, the rest of the batting unit including Shahrukh Khan, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan will have to stay aggressive throughout the innings if they are to pose a challenge to the visitors.
The Titans bowling, which has largely been underwhelming for the majority of the campaign, will be up against one of the most explosive opening pairs of the tournament. In Englishman Phil Salt (435 runs in 12 matches at 182 strike rate) and Narine (461 runs in 11 matches at 182.93), KKR have two batters who not only make a lot of runs but also make them at an electric speed.
The middle-order responsibilities have been shouldered with aplomb by captain Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell and Angkrish Raghuvanshi. The return of southpaw Nitish Rana from injury lends further batting heft to the team.
It would be interesting to see if the Titans bowlers – Umesh Yadav, Sandeep Warrier, Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad along with Mohit Sharma are able to rein in the marauding KKR batters as this matchup could very well decide the outcome of the match.
