Match Details
Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders
Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai
Wednesday, September 30th 2020
16:00 SA Time
Preview
Here are two teams that come into this game with some good form behind them. While Rajasthan Royals (RR) are flying high with two wins in a row, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) came back strongly after their defeat in the first game to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their second game.
The Steve Smith-led side have been involved in a couple of high-scoring encounters and have been on the right end of the result. They racked up 216 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their first game and defended it. However, in the second game against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), RR pulled off a heist and recorded the highest-ever run-chase in the history of the IPL as they hunted down 224 with three balls to spare in a humdinger of a game. However, they will need to adapt to a new ground now (in Dubai) as they played both their games in Sharjah.
Meanwhile, the two-time champions KKR lost badly to MI but they were clinical against SRH. Their bowlers came to the party and restricted Hyderabad to a paltry score before Shubman Gill and Eoin Morgan took the team over the line. KKR’s worry will be how their lead spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Sunil Narine have performed. Both of them have just one wicket between them and have looked far from convincing.
Injury and Availability News
Both sides have a clean bill of health at the moment.
Probable Playing XI
Rajasthan Royals
Jos Buttler (wk), Steven Smith (c), Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Tom Curran, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Jaydev Unadkat
Kolkata Knight Riders
Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
Key Players to watch out for
Jos Buttler: The England wicket-keeper batsman played his first game of the season in the last game against KXIP. He failed to deliver as he could muster just four runs. However, Buttler is a quality player and has delivered consistently for RR over the last couple of years. He could well be the player to watch out for in this game.
Sanju Samson: The way Samson has played has been simply outstanding. He has been hitting sixes for fun. In two games, he has smoked a staggering 16 sixes and has made 159 runs at a strike-rate of 214.86. He has scored back-to-back fifties as well, something he had never done in his IPL career before this season.
Andre Russell: The big Jamaican all-rounder has had a pretty quiet start to the 2020 season of the IPL. Russell has bowled a couple of overs in each game and picked up a wicket each. With the bat, he scored 11 in the only game he batted. Hence, this could well be his game.
Value Bets
Rajasthan Royals
Steve Smith to be RR’s top batsman at
Jofra Archer to be RR’s top bowler at
Kolkata Knight Riders
Shubman Gill to be KKR’s top batsman at
Pat Cummins to be KKR’s top bowler at