🏏Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan Royals, 31st Match.Eden Gardens🏏

🏏Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan Royals, 31st Match.Eden Gardens🏏

[Logo Credit - Wildestdreasm]  

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will face off against the Men In Pink- Rajasthan Royals (RR), in the 31st match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season 2024 slated to take place at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. 

RR are leading the IPL 2024 points table with KKR trailing them on the second spot. So it will be the battle between the best of the IPL 2024.

Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals have won five out of the six matches that they have played and KKR, on the other hand, have played five matches and won four of them. 

KKR won their last match at the Eden Gardens against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) quite convincingly. 

RR has been putting up excellent all-round performances in IPL 2024. Their opener Yashasvi Jaiswal coming back in form is the last piece of the puzzle that they would feel is solved. 

RR's batting order, helped by consistent performances by their skipper Sanju Samson, and Riyan Parag, look like one of the best in the IPL 2024 season so far. 

Their bowling unit, spearheaded by the purple cap holder Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, and Avesh Khan, has been top-notch, contributing significantly to the team's victories.

KKR, on the other hand, has benefited heavily from Sunil Narine's ability to get the team off to flier starts with the bat. Phil Salt’s good form adds to their batting prowess. 

In terms of bowling, Sunil Narine has been very miserly, giving very little to the opposition batter in the middle overs and Mitchell Starc's recent good outing will have KKR confident in limiting the batting strength of the Rajasthan Royals.

 In the last match at Eden Gardens, most of the batters found it difficult to bat with ease and also the pitch provided enough bounce to help pacers. Hence, a neck-to-neck battle should be expected from these belligerents, as a win will help to cement their spot in the playoffs.

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KKR vs RR Head To Head IPL History 

In their IPL encounters, KKR and RR have squared off 28 times, with Kolkata holding a narrow advantage, clinching victory in 14 matches compared to Rajasthan's 13. Specifically at the iconic Eden Gardens Stadium, KKR's home ground, the hosts have displayed dominance by securing wins in 6 out of 10 encounters against RR.

KKR vs RR Pitch Report

Traditionally, the pitch at Eden Gardens has been favorable to batters, providing a reliable pace and bounce conducive to aggressive stroke-making. However, as the tournament progresses, the surface tends to slow down, bringing spinners into play. The last match that unfolded at this venue resulted in KKR chasing 162 in just 15.4 overs, thanks to Phil Salt’s unbeaten 47-ball 89.

KKR vs RR Match Prediction- Who Will Win Today’s Match?

While both teams have been excellent in IPL 2024, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have more chances in their favor to win the KKR vs RR game as they have the home advantage and their openers’ fine form will definitely give them an edge over Rajasthan Royals.

As the season is progressing, Knight Riders are slowly coming into their own, with their dominance in all three departments growing. Even a few niggles and injuries to their players - Nitish Rana and Harshit Rana, saw Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Vaibhav Arora seemingly filling in for them. Phil Salt and Mitchell Starc took some time to find their groove, and are yet to fire at their best, but managed to give a reasonable account of the threat they possess.

Royals, on the other hand, will be coming into the clash at the back of two nervy games: one won off the penultimate ball and the other lost of the last. Sanju Samson, the Royals skipper, was at a loss of words as to how the team found themselves in a position that they could have avoided. To make matters worse, as the hot sun is beating down and the number of trips to the airports has lost count, their players are picking niggles and dropping off.

Much unlike KKR, Royals don’t have a similar depth in their batting and bowling, with the likes of R Ashwin being their best bowling all-rounder and Riyan Parag being their best batting all-rounder - far from the quality and quantity KKR possess in their line-up.

But with two in-form teams set to battle, with the top spot up for grabs at the mid-point competition, it promises to deliver quality viewing.

Head to head: It’s been a tough battle between the two teams over the years with KKR winning 14 matches and RR winning 13 of the 27 games, with both teams winning two games each in their last four encounters. At Eden Gardens, however, KKR have a 6-3 advantage over

What to expect: While the weather is expected to quite hot and humid during the day, don’t be surprised if it’s uncharacteristically breezy in the evening with some cloud cover. Dew should play a part, offering some assistance to the chasing team.

Team Watch

Kolkata Knight Riders

Injuries/Unavailability: Even as Nitish Rana was declared fit a few days ago, he hasn’t played in the last two games.

Tactics & Matchups: Even as the pitch is unlikely to assist spinners, Sunil Narine has shown time and again, including as recently as the previous game, that he wouldn’t need much assistance from the pitch. He has managed to keep Sanju Samson - who has otherwise scored briskly at Eden Gardens - quiet. In the 82-ball face-off between the two in IPL, Samson has scored only 66 runs and been dismissed thrice by the spinner

Probable XI: Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghvanshi, Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy [Impact Substitute: Venkatesh Iyer]

Rajasthan Royals:

Injuries/Unavailability: Even as there was no information offered regarding the availability of the four players - R Ashwin, Jos Buttler, Sandeep Sharma and Nandre Burger - who missed the previous game, Ashwin was seen having a long net session with the bat.

Tactics & Matchups: If Buttler isn’t fit and available, there is a possibility for Royals to go in with Tom Kohler-Cadmore. However, don’t be surprised if they go with a left-field option again to partner Jaiswal, with either R Ashwin or Dhruv Jurel being the option. Additionally, there could be a temptation to use R Ashwin and Trent Boult against Russell, who has been dismissed thrice by the duo in a combined face-off of 15 balls, in which he has scored only 22 runs.

Probable XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, R Ashwin, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult, Navdeep Saini/Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal [Impact Substitute: Donovan Ferreira/Keshav Maharaj]

Did you know?

KKR have the best powerplay batting performance (Avg 47.14/SR 11) while RR have the worst (Avg 30.11/RR 7.53) among all teams in IPL 2024

Shimron Hetmyer has the most runs in death overs since IPL 2022, striking at 201.8. Among all the batters Who have faced 100-plus balls in this phase, his strike rate is bettered only by Tim David (213.14) and Dinesh Karthik (209.9).

Trent Boult, who had five wickets in the powerplay in the first three games of the season, has gone wicketless during this phase in the last three matches.

What they said

Life on the outside of cricket really affects you. And that’s one big major part which has played in my career is how I deal with it. “It didn’t really start out well, I took a lot of things to heart, that were being said about me, etc, whatever it was. I just had to figure out what mattered to me, whose opinions mattered to me, and I figured that out eventually And that has helped. Cricketing-wise, I think playing at No. 4 is, again, something which I’m used to doing in domestic cricket in different situations, more common situations, actually. But yeah, it’s been a mix of both, emotionally and skill-wise - Riyan Parag on what has changed for him this season

Will keep reiterating that it's a funny tournament and have to stay in the present as much as possible. Have to seize the moment and not leave it on someone else - Shreyas Iyer following KKR’s comprehensive win over LSG

Thank you💜

Thanks for the tag, Mads! Lets go KKR