Sports
GL vs KKR: Raina back as KKR struggle to find form
On the eve of their second last league game, against Gujarat Lions, that can seal their playoff spot, Kolkata Knight Riders suffered a major blow with the loss of Andre Russell to an injury he picked up against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Apart from being a vital batsman in the slog overs, Russell is Knight Riders’ highest wicket-taker in the season so far, with 15 wickets at an economy rate of 7.97. On what is expected to be a batting-friendly Green Park pitch, and against a line-up that contains Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Suresh Raina and Dwayne Bravo, Russell’s loss would be huge, especially while bowling in the Powerplay overs. Their batting, though, looks settled with an in-form Gautam Gambhir at the top, followed by a consistent middle order.
Lions, on the other hand, will be boosted by the arrival of their captain Suresh Raina, who returns from paternity leave. After kickstarting their campaign with six wins in their first seven matches, Lions suffered four losses in their next five matches. The most harrowing of those came against Royal Challengers in their last game, in which they slid to a 144-run defeat, the largest margin in IPL history. The defeat had severe effects on their net run rate (currently -0.747), and their best chance of qualifying is by winning both their games. A loss to Knight Riders will still keep them alive, though.
Another concern for Lions will be their failure to surge in the latter half of the innings. In this IPL, they have the second-fastest run rate in the first ten overs – 8.33 (behind Royal Challengers’ 8.36), but in the second half, they have been scoring at 7.66 – the worst among all teams. They are coming off quite a long lay-off – just one match in the last ten days – and will be eager to jump to second place with a win.
Gujarat Lions (probable): 1 Brendon McCullum , 2 Dwayne Smith, 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 5 Aaron Finch, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Dhawal Kulkarni, 10 Shivil Kaushik, 11 Pravin Tambe
Kolkata Knight Riders (probable): 1 Robin Uthappa (wk), 2 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Yusuf Pathan, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Jason Holder, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Sunil Narine, 10 Ankit Rajpoot, 11 Morne Morkel
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.
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