IPL 2018 Preview: Home comforts for Kolkata Knight Riders in Eliminator against Rajasthan Royals

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  • KKR will be playing in front of their home crowd. Image - IPL/Twitter.

    When Rajasthan Royals were handed a six-wicket thrashing by Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on May 15, it seemed to spell the end of their IPL play-off hopes, while the victors stole a big march in the race.

    As fate would have it, the two teams will meet again just over a week later at the same venue in the eliminator clash on Wednesday. The Royals’ victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore coupled with defeats for Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab meant that they sealed the final play-off spot with 14 points.

    On the other hand, Kolkata continued their momentum from that win over Rajasthan with an impressive dismantling of Sunrisers Hyderabad in their final league encounter.

    ADVANTAGE KOLKATA

    Dinesh Karthik’s Knight Riders got the better of Ajinkya Rahane’s Royals in both their meetings in the league stage. More so, both of Kolkata’s wins were comprehensive. While they won with 12 balls to spare and six wickets in hand at home, their margin of victory in the away clash at Jaipur was equally huge (seven wickets).

    Added with the fact that Kolkata will be playing on their familiar home turf in front of their passionate fans, Rahane and his men will definitely have their task cut out when they take the field on Wednesday.

    ROYALS’ BATTING WOES

    With the departure of the in-form Jos Buttler, Rajasthan’s batting is looking rather shaky. Rahane’s own form has been poor if anything while Sanju Samson has gone off the boil completely after starting the season with a bang. Rahul Tripathi has misfired all season too before finding some form with a half-century against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

    The lack of a big score while batting first has been the undoing for Rajasthan in both their losses to Kolkata this season. With the Knight Riders batting fairly deep, Rajasthan cannot afford another subpar total on Wednesday if they are to have a chance. They will need Rahane and Samson to step up to the plate if they are to fight to live another day.

    LIKELY LINE-UPS

    Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (c, wk), Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Javon Searles, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.

    Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Stuart Binny, K Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Ish Sodhi, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Laughlin.

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