Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders: Can SRH maintain their winning streak

SRH is on a solid comeback momentum

After opening the league with two consecutive losses, Hyderabad looks to have found their team form and opened their account with two wins. The squad seems balanced now, especially after the team has been able to restore the opening pair partnership between Abhishek Sharma and skipper Kane Williamson. If they can fetch a watchful start against Knight Riders' bowlers, then they might be able to pull the third win for the team. Rahul Tripathi, Nicholas Pooran, and Aiden Markram can further expand the total in the middle order. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, along with the pacing machine, Umran Malik, has been impressed with their pace attack. In the absence of Washington Sundar, the bowling line-up may face a big challenge.

KKR is aiming to jump back to the top position on the points table

On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders have key performers from top to bottom. Andre Russell and Pat Cummins have displayed how much depth they have to offer to the team. The form of Venkatesh Iyer as an opener has been a concern as he has not been consistent. Umesh Yadav in powerplay will remain the crucial key for cracking the opening duo of SRH. Having placed second in the points table and coming with a loss on their back, they will be looking to bounce back in the match tonight. 

Pitch Report

The pitch at Brabourne assists both batters and bowlers. Dew's influence comes to play deep in the match, and thus, the team winning toss might look to bowl first.

Probable Playing XI

Kolkata Knight Riders: Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sam Billings (wk), Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav, Rasikh Dar, Varun Chakravarthy

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (c), Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Shashank Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik

Stats to keep an eye on

• The last time SRH defeated KKR was back in 2019, and since then, they haven't been able to dominate KKR.
• With a strike rate of 99, Rahane and Venkatesh have been the slowest opening pair this IPL (min. three innings opening together).

With every content bringing in drama and thriller, we can expect an entertaining match tonight as well. It will be worth seeing if Kolkata bounces back or if it's a three on a trot for Hyderabad.