7:27pm Not long left now before the first ball. Rinku Singh and Muthiah Muralitharan ring the bell at the Eden Gardens to signal the start of proceedings. SRH are in a huddle, with Cummins giving out some last-minute instructions. de Kock and Narine are the openers, so no change on that front for KKR. de Kock will take strike, and he will face up to Shami, who has dismissed him thrice in seven innings. de Kock, though, has also struck at 150 against the pacer. How will this contest transpire tonight? Around the wicket. Let’s find out!
7:22pm Plenty of KKR flags waving in the distance. Their last home game did not go to plan (against RCB), and they will hope this follows a different script, especially now that they are batting first.
Big Dave: “KKR is the strongest side on paper. 8 Proper Batters (QDK, Rahane, Venky, Raghuvanshi, Ali, Rinku, Russel, Raman) Narine. They also have 6 genuine Bowling options (Harshit, Vaibhav, Ali, Russell, VC and Narine).” — But the IPL is never won on paper, is it?!
libin: “Is Kamindu Mendis in for his batting or ambidextrous bowling ? ” — A bit of both. With his inclusion, SRH have further strengthened their middle order, with Abhinav Manohar the one to miss out.
7:10pm Plenty to dissect from the toss. SRH have included Kamindu Mendis for the first time this season and he will be making his IPL debut tonight. He can bowl left-arm and right-arm off-spin. Ansari keeps his place too after a three-for on debut in Vishakhapatnam. KKR’s change, meanwhile, does indicate that they are expecting the ball to spin. They can now bowl 12 overs of spin, and if there are further signs this is a raging turner, they can also bring Roy as their Impact Player, although it is likelier that Arora, with his new-ball prowess, might get the nod.
Hassan: “Will Travis Head be coming in as an impact sub? Don’t follow much but want to see SRH bat so do tell me!” — Most likely.
Kolkata Knight Riders XI: Quinton de Kock (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Moeen Ali, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy
KKR bench: Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia
Sunrisers Hyderabad XI: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aniket Verma, Kamindu Mendis, Pat Cummins (capt), Simarjeet Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari
SRH bench: Abhinav Manohar, Jaydev Unadkat, Travis Head, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder
7pm It’s toss time. Cummins, once a Knight Rider, makes his way out and joins Rahane in the middle. Rahane has the coin and he launches it into the air. Heads is the call, and heads it is. Sunrisers Hyderabad will bowl. Cummins says it looks like a good wicket, before adding that he is terrible at reading pitches. He recalls these teams’ encounters from last year and says this is always a big contest. Adds that they have spoken a bit about their approach, but mentions they feel they are at their best when attacking. Long tournament, not worrying about it too much, he says. Concludes that they normally go into the game with a clear idea of who their Impact Player will be.
Rahane says he is really happy with the pitch, and that he would have bowled first. He hopes the pitch will assist his spinners. In home games, he feels teams should get what they want, but irrespective, he wants his team to assess the conditions quickly. They had an off-day against MI, he admits, but it is also about playing fearless cricket and assessing the conditions. Preparation yesterday was good, and they are looking forward to tonight. Moeen Ali comes in for Spencer Johnson.
6:55pm Sreshth, who is at the ground, tells me that Nortje has been bowling at full tilt. Will he get a game tonight, possibly replacing Johnson? He also adds that Aniket Verma, who has impressed with his six sense so far, was struck on the toe in practice and hobbled off. No clarity yet on whether he will feature tonight, although we should find out in a few minutes, with the toss coming up.
6:50pm SRH have not enjoyed much success historically at this venue, with KKR holding a 7-3 advantage. But SRH have three wins in their last five matches at the Eden Gardens – the most recent being 23-run victory in 2023, fashioned by Harry Brook’s maiden IPL century. What is in store for us tonight?
Venkat : “This is crucial game for both the teams to gain confidence and move out of lower side of the table.”
Pitch Report: Let’s start off with the dimensions first. Equidistant square boundaries (more or less) – 62m to one side, 64m to the other, with a 75m hit straight down the ground. Eoin Morgan says it is a pretty good surface, really firm and well put together. Great covering of grass, he adds. But there is a patch, on a full length, where the spinners might have something to work with, even with the new ball, provided the bowler have the guts to get the ball up. If you bat first, make sure you get 200 or more, says Pommie Mbangwa. Morgan says he would 100% chase, with dew possibly being a factor.
6:40pm KKR won each of their three games last season against SRH and have, in fact, won eight of their previous ten matches against this opposition. All that and much more in Sreshth’s preview.
ankeet: “It will be exciting to watch how destructive SRH batters will tackle against Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Moeen Ali.” — It will be an interesting battle for sure, but reckon Moeen might miss out again tonight, if everyone is fit.
Mustafa Moudi: “Silver Duck in the Q1 – IPL 2024, Golden Duck in Final – IPL 2024 , Out First Ball he faced, of Varun Chakravarthy in CT Semi-Final…. Travis Head has failed to score a Single Run while facing KKR Bowlers in the last 3 innings. KKR Bowlers Knows how to keep his bat silent !!” — Starc, who dismissed him in the Qualifier last year, is no longer around but Arora is, provided KKR (if they bat first) do not collapse again to be forced into bringing a batter as an Impact Player…
6:30pm May 26, 2024. A proper heavyweight clash. Between two teams that attack, attack, attack and then attack some more. With the ultimate prize at stake. One freezes, the other relishes the occasion, and a contest that was supposed to be a see-saw battle of haymakers and hooks, turns into a rout and a pounding.
Ten months on, the Kolkata Knight Riders, defending champions, are still trying to dominate; the Sunrisers Hyderabad, still striving to push the batting barriers of what is possible. There are differences, though, and they are telling.
Neither has packaged intent and execution together consistently enough, often ending up with just rubble in their pursuit of batting gold. Neither has grabbed this edition by the scruff of its neck yet, and there are more questions around them than at perhaps any point last campaign.
And so, here we are. From that sultry evening in Chennai last May, which ended in ecstasy and elation for KKR, and in dejection and disappointment for SRH, these teams now enter the theatre that is the Eden Gardens, not with the title at stake, but with survival and a scrap to surge higher in the table the transient theme.
KKR are still defending champions; SRH probably the most belligerent and irresistible batting unit. But the onus has now shifted onto these sides, and they will be chomping at the bit to reiterate why they are what they have been billed as.
Lots to gorge on, so sit back, relax and enjoy ESPNcricinfo’s live coverage!
