Two teams with an impressive bowling line up, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad will face off against each other in match 25 of Indian Premier League 2022.
The Knight Riders, who were the losing finalists of last year, have won three of their give games so far. But it can be noted that their batting has not been up to the mark. They are largely dependent on their bowlers, with Umesh Yadav doing a great job. They would have lost two of their games if not for a one-man show by Andre Russell and Pat Cummins respectively. Aaron Finch is available for this game, and it remains to be seen if Ajinkya Rahane is dropped for Finch. If Finch plays, Sam Billings will have to serve the drinks while Sheldon Jackson will keep the wickets.
Sunrisers, too, have not been able to do much with the bat except for in their most recent game against the Gujarat Titans, when they chased down 163 with a combined batting effort from the top four in the batting order. They have been largely dependent on their pace bowling department.
If we talk about the overall head to head total of both teams in the IPL, the Knight Riders have been the dominant side. In 21 meetings between the two teams, Kolkata have 14 wins while Hyderabad have bagged only seven. Even worse is Hyderabad’s record in the last five games between the two sides, of which they have won none.
Predicted XI
Sunrisers Hyderabad - Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (c), Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Shashank Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Marco Jansen, Umran Malik, T Natarajan
Kolkata Knight Riders - Ajinkya Rahane/Aaron Finch, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Sam Billings/Sheldon Jackson (wk), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine, Rasikh Salam, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
Image credit: IPL