The Knight Riders will enter this match in the second position in the table out of 10 teams. They started their campaign with three consecutive wins before suffering a defeat to the Chennai Super Kings. After that loss, almost a week has passed, so Kolkata had enough time to prepare for the recovery. Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, and Phil Salt have been the top scorers for KKR in this IPL season. Narine has once again been somewhat of a revelation at the top of the order, scoring 161 runs in four innings at a strike rate of almost 190. This world-class all-rounder has also taken four wickets in IPL 2024. Russell is also a huge asset with both bat and ball for Kolkata. He is the team’s second-highest run-scorer and one of the top wicket-takers this season. Russell, along with local talents Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora, has five wickets each in this year’s tournament. All three deserve support to achieve success once again.
This season, Lucknow has secured three consecutive wins, interspersed with losses on both sides. Their latest result was a defeat against the Delhi Capitals. They have a short gap between this loss and the match against the highly motivated Kolkata team. Nicholas Pooran, KL Rahul, and Quinton de Kock have been standout players for the Super Giants this season. Each of them has scored over 160 runs and has provided a lot of impetus in the powerplay, middle overs, and death overs. Captain Rahul seems to be improving with each match as well. Yash Thakur and Mayank Yadav have made an impression in this season’s IPL, sharing 13 wickets between them. They are among the country’s brightest bowling talents. Yadav is a pacey bowler but has been sidelined due to injury. It is expected that he will return for this match.
