What

Match 25 of Pepsi IPL 2015 will see the might of Kolkata Knight Riders pitted against the Rajasthan Royals.

KKR, defending champions, have had a topsy-turvy season so far. They won the season opener before losing their second match. They were back to winning ways in the following two matches, before losing their most-recent match – a rain-affected encounter against Sunrisers Hyderabad. The team, led by Gautam Gambhir, will be concerned by their most-recent performance when they failed to separate the SRH opening pair and allowed them to amass 130 runs on the board. The team’s premier spinner – Sunil Narine - has been reported for suspect action, and while he can continue to bowl, the spotlight will be on him; the Trinidadian, who had his action cleared prior to the season, has not had it easy so far – picking up only two wickets in five matches and conceding runs at an economy rate of 7.35 – and his task will become that much more difficult with the scrutiny on his action.

The Rajasthan Royals raced away to ten points before their bandwagon was stopped in the Super Over against Kings XI Punjab. In their most recent outing, they struggled to cope with a sluggish surface in Ahmedabad and were at the receiving end of a clinical performance from Royal Challengers Bangalore. There is no denying that conditions made life difficult for batsmen on that occasion, but one would have liked to see better application from the batsmen and that is exactly what would have been spoken in the RR dressing room.

When

26 April 2015, 4p.m. IST

Where

Eden Gardens, Kolkata

The Protagonists

The opening pair of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa have been the cornerstone of many a KKR victories. Either or both of the openers have generally batted into the second half of the innings, allowing the stroke-makers to flourish at the other end. The team will look to apply that formula yet again. In matches at the Eden Gardens, KKR have relied heavily on their spinners, but they may have to look at other alternatives now. Morne Morkel and Umesh Yadav are the team’s top two wicket-takers and they will be expected to bear much more load in the absence of Shakib-al-Hasan and in the circumstance Sunil Narine is faced with.

The Rajasthan Royals too have rode on the performance of their opening pair. Ajinkya Rahane is in the zone many batsmen can only dream of; the Mumbai batsman is testimony to the fact that there is room even for purists in T20 cricket. The 26-year old plays cricket the conventional way, driving the ball along the ground, finding the gaps, rotating the strike over frequently, waiting for the bowler to make a mistake and on the very rare occasion sending the ball over the boundary. He has put a huge price on his wicket and makes bowlers work hard to earn his wicket.

Contests to look-forward to

The 6ft 5in tall Morne Morkel bowling to Shane Watson is a contest that promises to be exciting. In the recently concluded World Cup, one got to see that the Australian batsman was uncomfortable against short-pitched stuff. In Morkel, KKR have a bowler who generally bowls back of a length – at good pace – and can generate steep bounce. It will be interesting to see if the RR captain takes him on or uses the ‘best to play a menacing fast bowler from the non-striker’s end’ ploy.

Previous Meetings

RR have an edge over KKR where previous meetings between the two teams are concerned. RR have won eight matches – including both matches last season – of the 14 times they’ve clashed against KKR.

The RR leg-spinner Pravin Tambe picked up a hat-trick when these two teams last met. He dismissed Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschate off consecutive deliveries. KKR were well placed at 121 for 1 after 14 overs – in pursuit of 171 – before slipping, courtesy Tambe’s hat-trick, and eventually fell 11 runs short.

Trivia

KKR have a fabulous record in run-chases at the Eden Gardens; they have won 15 of the 19 matches in which they’ve had the opportunity to chase.

What Next

Both teams head south for their respective next fixtures. KKR will be seen in action in Chennai on April 28 when they take on Chennai Super Kings, while RR head to Bengaluru for their clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 29.