IPL 2023, KKR vs CSK: Kolkata Knight Riders desperate to arrest slide versus heavyweight Chennai Super Kings
IPL 2023: On Sunday, Kolkata Knight Riders play host to Chennai Super Kings. While the visitors have been commanding lately, the hosts have been on a losing streak and would be desperate to return to winning ways.
FollowOn a downward spiral, former two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) would be desperate to press the reset button and snap their three-match losing streak when it faces former four-time champion Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) at the iconic Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata on Sunday.
The Nitish Rana-led side, which showed much promise with two wins against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Gujarat Titan (GT), suddenly lost the plot. KKR (four points in six matches) now find itself in the eighth spot in the standings, with only former champion SunRisers Hyderabad (4) and Delhi Capitals (2) below it.
KKR's losing streak began at home, going down to SRH before it endured successive away defeats to record five-time former champion Mumbai Indians (MI) and Delhi Capitals (DC), to lose all its matches on the road so far this season. All its losses have come against sides who are struggling this season. SRH had lost two and won once before getting their act together at Eden Gardens, while its old nemesis MI revived its campaign against a misfiring DC and KKR.
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Two reverses may have led KKR to press the panic button as it rang in four changes against DC. As it turned out, Delhi secured its first win of the season after five losses on the trot. The common thing in all three losses has been the KKR batters' collective failure, while the bowling unit has performed better.
KKR had 67 dot balls as it put up its worst batting show of the season, being all out for 127 against DC in its last match. Approaching the season's halfway stage, it's time for KKR to go back to the drawing board and address the issues instead of just chopping and changing its XI.
While English opener Jason Roy (43; 39) looked at ease at the top of the order after being recalled in place of Afghan cricketer Gurbaz Rahmanullah, Litton Das had a night to forget against DC on his debut. The Bangladesh keeper-batter failed with the bat and missed stumpings twice against Axar Patel and Jayant Yadav, who played the finishing roles in an unbroken stand to seal Delhi's nervy four-wicket win.
With uncapped Indian Narayan Jagadeesan giving both the wicket-keeping and opening options, it would not be a bad idea to bring him in while bolstering its pace attack at the expense of Litton. The biggest positive for KKR in Delhi has been the return to form of Andre Russell, who hit some monstrous sixes to lift it to 127 after a batting collapse. After an ordinary outing (4-0-36-0) in Delhi, Sunil Narine would also look to bounce back strongly against CSK.
Dhoni fever one last time at Eden?
It will also be the biggest test for KKR's skipper Rana as emotions will sway in favour of CSK talisman MS Dhoni in what could potentially be his last appearance at the iconic Eden Gardens. A sea of yellow fans sporting the signature No. 7 Dhoni jersey will likely flood the Eden Gardens on Sunday evening.
Such has been the demand that tickets for this marquee match have been sold out in advance. And the ones available in the black market are being sold at a highly inflated price. It has been a typical CSK show by the four-time champions as they are ticking all the boxes after starting with a loss against defending champion Gujarat Titans (GT) in the season opener.
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The sense of calmness and clarity in the Dhoni-led side's changing room is evident. The opening duo of Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad have found their chemistry and put together 87 runs from 66 balls to set the tone in their seven-wicket win over SRH in the last match. Conway steered the show with an unbeaten 77, a clean knock without any slam-bang show.
The Kiwi batter is adept at tackling spinners and will look to relish the challenge against Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. CSK's spin trio of Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja and Maheesh Theekshana also looks forward to bowling at the Eden. But, its X Factor is Sri Lankan pace sensation Matheesha Pathirana, the 20-year-old with a Lasith Malinga-like sling-arm action, as he takes on people like Rinku Singh and Russell.
"He has got variation. He has got a good pace. We have seen this with Malinga -- someone who has an awkward action and is very consistent with line and length. It isn't easy to score off him. He has been a find," Dhoni said.
Squads:
KKR: Nitish Rana (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Litton Das, Mandeep Singh and Jason Roy.
CSK: MS Dhoni (c & wk), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Deepak Chahar, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Ajinkya Rahane, Ben Stokes, Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu, Sisanda Magala, Ajay Mandal, Bhagath Varma and Akash Singh.
Match details
Date and day: April 23, 2023 (Sunday)
Venue: Eden Gardens Stadium, Kolkata
Time: 7.30 PM (IST)
Where to watch (TV): Star Sports 1 and other Star Sports regional language channels - Also available in HD
Where to watch (Online): JioCinema
