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IPL 2020 | KKR vs KXIP: Match Preview, Predicted XI & Dream11 Fantasy Picks


After impacting each other’s journey in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League with every wins and losses, two teams vying for one spot in the top four - the Kings XI Punjab and the Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns to push the other away from the race directly in a mouth-watering contest. Both sides have a spring in their step after energetic and soul-searching wins in their last games. The KKR trounced the Delhi Capitals in their last game on the back of performances reminiscent of the franchise’s past while the KL Rahul-led KXIP’s resurgence has taken the IPL by storm. 


The Kings XI Punjab got their mojo back in their win against the Mumbai Indians in the match that went down to two super overs and the side has never looked back since defeating the Delhi Capitals handsomely in the next match and followed it up with a spectacular win against the Sunrisers when all looked doomed and gloomy for the Mohali-based side. The fact that the team has managed to win on the back of players other than mainstays in captain KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal would give a leap of confidence to the side. Nicholas Pooran has shown the form he was trusted to display in the tournament by the side and now the Kings XI are riding high on belief after winning games from behind in the last few games.


On the other hand, the Kolkata Knight Riders proved that the side houses too much class to put on dismal batting performances for a long period of time and the Delhi Capitals turned out to be on the wrong side of their firepower. The last win against the Capitals was achieved courtesy two seasoned pros in Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana and a rising star Varun Chakravarthy. The side turned back the clock and showed all the quality of it used to show in its prime days in the history of the league.


KXIP have won five matches while the KKR have 12 points from six wins after playing an equal number of matches at 11. The encounter between the side could well be one knockout clash where the ascendancy of one over another will push the side on the wrong side of the result on the brink of the playoff chances in the season.


Eoin Morgan would be hoping for some consistency from his side and will expect his men to carry on with the self-belief and momentum they would have gained after such a big win over the Capitals while KL Rahul would keep reminding his men that the journey is not finished yet and one bad game would undo all the hard work and hard-earned success of the last four games.


The game will also be a matchup between the bowling lineup of the KKR which has the raw pace of Lockie Ferguson and Pat Cummins along with the guile and surprises of Varun Chakravarthy and the star-studded lineup of the Kings XI filled with explosive batsmen such as KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle and Nicholas Pooran. The KKR bowling lineup is in top-notch form and so are the KXIP batsmen and it would make up for a riveting contest to start afresh week in the IPL 2020.

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab- Match details

Match Number - 46

Date: 25th October 2020, at 7:30 PM IST

Venue: Sharjah

Pitch and Weather

An old pitch that was used in the game between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings will be used again for this match and it might bring spinners into the game. The pair of Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah found help from the pitch and Boult also got a considerable amount of movement in the air to torment the CSK’s top order and the bowling attack on either side will look to extract same purchase as Boult and Bumrah got in the last game on this pitch.


The par score at the Sharjah cricket ground has decreased considerably after the first few games when batsmen were making merry off the bowlers due to extremely short boundaries and the sides will look to reboot their batting tactics keeping in mind the size of the boundary in Sharjah.


The weather in Sharjah is likely to be pleasant for the players with the temperature dipping below the 30 degree-mark and expected level of humidity around 50 per cent.

Team News

Kolkata Knight Riders

Eoin Morgan had credited Brendon McCullum for bringing back Sunil Narine into the playing XI and the team did not give any reasons whatsoever to make Morgan and McCullum ponder over the makeup of the playing XI. However, it is more than likely that the KKR will maintain a fluid batting order where batsmen will be picked to bat at different positions based on situations in a particular game.


Expected XI

Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy

Kings XI Punjab

Mayank Agarwal missed the last game due to an injury he had picked up in the game against the Delhi Capitals but his injury did not look serious at that time. Although there is a lack of clarity on the nature of his injury, he is likely to walk back into the XI against the KKR.


The rest of the team should be as it was in the last game except for any injury concerns in the 11th hour.

Expected XI

KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Deepak Hooda, Murugan Ashwin, Chris Jordan, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab: Dream 11 team and suggestion

Dinesh Karthik, Nicholas Pooran, KL Rahul, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Mayank Agarwal, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Chris Jordan, Mohammed Shami

Captain: KL Rahul

Vice-captain: Nicholas Pooran

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IPL 2020 | SRH vs KXIP: Hits and Flops as Chris Jordan- Arshdeep Singh execute the biggest heist in the 13th edition of the league

You lose some games, you gift others and then there are games in which victory is just robbed off you in a perfect style- probably like a heist. And that’s exactly what happened in Dubai as the Sunrisers Hyderabad were robbed of a victory by the two Punjabi pace bowlers, Chris Jordan and Arshdeep Singh. Kings XI defended the lowest total of the season- 126 runs as they got their opponents all out for 114, who at one time were 100/3 in the 17th over. The roles played by the Punjabi players vary, however the ones played by the Hyderabad batsmen, who came after the fall of openers David Warner and Jonny Bairstow have no variation at all, as all of them were moronically dismissed of length balls, trying to play glory shots. On that note, here is a look at the Hits and Flops of the game Hits #1 Chris Jordan Getting an inspiration from the game against Mumbai Indians in which he had delivered the second super over to win his team the match, Chris Jordan took it upon himself to do it again for the team. He bowled an immaculate 17th over picking the much-needed wicket of Manish Pandey and giving way just seven runs of it. But what was even more brilliant was the penultimate over that he bowled. Defending just 17 off 12 balls, Jordan bowled a perfect over, picking up the wickets of dangerous Jason Holder and Rashid Khan in consecutive deliveries and gave away just three runs off it, giving young Arshdeep an opportunity to win his team a game by defending 14 off the last over. #2 Arhsdeep Singh If Jordan was brilliant, the Sikh Swagger in Arshdeep was not behind either. He took it upon himself to win the game for the team, delivering three back to back brilliant overs, giving away just 13 runs, and picking up three crucial wickets as well, including the one of settled Vijay Shankar. His best however was seen in the last over as he refused to get bogged down by pressure and kept on bowling length deliveries that were sticking into the wicket. This performance made the belief of the team even stronger in him as he finally repaid the backing of the management. #3 Nicholas Pooran When all the batsmen of Punjab were getting out either by getting beaten by Rashid’s leggies or by the helplessness of not being able to connect the deliveries properly, there was one man, who stood till the last ball, to give Kings XI something to fight at on that bowler’s friendly wicket. Pooran made a struggling yet fruitful 32 off 28 balls to get Punjab to 126. In the hindsight, the 15 runs scored off the last two overs seem to be the most crucial in the entire Punjab innings. Flops #1 Manish Pandey The hero from the last game, Manish Pandey became the ultimate villain in this game, gobbling up deliveries and not being able to tickle the scorecard at the same time. Pandey made a painful 15 off 29 balls, which at best could be described as a horrendous attempt at chasing a small total. He along with Vijay Shankar, the other hero from the last game, used up 44 balls in the middle overs to make just 33 runs and then eventually get out when there was the needed to finally put the balls to the boundaries and win the game for the team. #2 Vijay Shankar The 3-D player as he is commonly known as, Shankar was praised in the last game a lot for his superb knock, which wasn’t really superb but an average knock in the light of many knocks played in this season of the game. However, so the superstar from the last game was yet again up for an opportunity to win yet another game for the team. But then what happened- well he failed and that too miserably. Shankar got out in the 18th over off Arshdeep trying to accelerate, which really wasn’t the need, all that was needed was of him to play till the last ball of the game and win it for the team. In total, he made 26 of 27 balls, slightly better from his partner Manish, yet not enough to lend his team a win. The next games are going to be crucial for both the teams, especially the Kings as they have a higher chance of q2ualifying for the Playoffs.

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IPL 2020 |SRH vs KXIP: What Experts said as Sunrisers suffer a dramatic defeat

A game that shouldn’t have even entered the 20th over as per the Sunrisers Hyderabad, ended up gobbling them to lose it by 12 runs, in what would be the nth dramatic ending involving Kings XI Punjab this season. The Dubai wicket and Kings seemed to have a special connection as almost every match here (apart from one against CSK) has been one to remember for the Punjabis, no matter if they ended up on the winning side or not. In this one too, the fact that a team, that too Kings XI was able to defend 126 runs, even when the chasing team is at 100/4 in the 17th over. But the bowlers of the Kings not only won the game but also reinstated the faith in them that they can defend any target. Captains’ Viewpoint Reacting to the 4th consecutive victory, the winning captain KL Rahul seemed happy and relieved at the same time, he said, “Yes we are making it (close finishes) a habit. In the first half, we somehow couldn't make this a habit.” The 29-year-old further said, “I am just speechless right now, to be honest. I am very happy with the show from the boys.” Praising the teammates for the success, Rahul said that he was relieved that finally, the hard work put in by his players and the support staff was coming off. “The work done is always behind the scenes, not just the players, but the support staff. You can't change much in a player in two months but you can always make them mentally better and that's what coach Kumble, Andy, Charl, Jonty, and Wasim have done.” Assessing the wicket Rahul said that he had already known that it was not a high scoring ground. “After I and Mandeep played the first over we knew it's not a high scoring wicket. We were thinking of close to 160. They went hard in the first six. But I knew we could pull things back if we don't leak many runs in the powerplay as we have two leggies,” he said speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony. The Karnataka born further said that they planned for the defense of the total and he is happy that it worked out well. “We sat down and thought about the things that the bowlers would need in conditions like these and it's good to see the work paying off,” he said. David Warner, the losing captain in this game was frustrated to see the hard work put in by himself and his partner Jonny Bairstow along with the bowlers. Talking about the loss he said, “Yeah it does (hurt a lot).” The Australian then lauded his bowlers for doing a fantastic job with the ball in hand to restrict Punjab to as low as 126. “Our bowlers did a fantastic job to restrict them. After the start we got, we took our foot off the pedal. Felt on that wicket it was going to get tougher once the spin came into it,” he said. Trying to explain the planned chase, which failed miserably, Warner said, “For us, it was about trying to apply pressure up front, negate the swing bowling, but obviously we didn't get across the line.” “Today our bowlers executed the plans well, very happy with them. Just have to forget this game and move forward,” concluded the 33-year-old. Expert Opinion Most of the cricket experts were of the view that it wasn’t SRH’s match to lose and that the games which weren’t going in KXIP’s favour at the start of the tournament, were now all ending up in their favour, indicating that the fortunes are changing. Cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra, pointing out he faults in the Hyderabad based team said that they might have gone through to the playoffs last year with just 12 points, but this year, they looked rugged and it wasn't just possible for them to make it through even after having 14 points. Cricket analyst Boria Majumdar however took the opportunity to praise the two Indian batsmen Mandeep Singh (who lost his father) and Nitish Rana ( who lost his father-in-law) just before the game, saying that it took courage for then to play even in such conditions. For veteran cricket journalist Ayaz Memon, it was a horrid show from the Sunrisers and a perfect one at that by the Kings XI, so good that to him they looked like making it to the playoffs. Sambit Bal, another senior cricket journalist said that from now onwards, no one should stop watching the game involving the Kings XI because they are capable of turning it around from any position. Harsha Bhohgle, the world-famous cricket commentator and journalist took this opportunity to showcase his shock at such a huge falter from his hometown team. He further said that the 'tide' is turning in favour of the Punjab unit. KXIP now has three matches to play in which they need a maximum of three and a minimum of two wins to qualify. Their first test would be on the 26th of October against the Kolkata Knight Riders who are also in more or less similar situations. For SRH though, it looks like the game is almost over until and unless they win all their remaining games and then hope that the other teams lose as well.