What

The Kolkata Knight Riders will aim to establish a lead at the top of the VIVO IPL 2017 standings with they take on the Delhi Daredevils in Match 32.

KKR have six wins and two defeats. In their last match, they quite comfortably defeated Rising Pune Supergiant, in the process displacing the Mumbai Indians from the top of the standings.

The Delhi Daredevils have had a five-day break since their defeat to Mumbai Indians. The Zaheer Khan-led side has two wins and four losses and have catching up to do. But the positive for them is that they have at least one game in hand compared to the rest to the teams. Though the team has signed on the two-time World T20 winner Marlon Samuels (as a replacement for Quinton de Kock), they will not have his services available until April 29. The young batsmen in the DD ranks need to put up their hands and start giving a better account of themselves. When DD have won, they have won big, and when they have lost, they have lost by narrow margins; hence their positive net run rate of 0.848. One hopes DD would have reflected back on those narrow defeats during the break and would have identified the one-percenters they can improve on that will help avoid those narrow defeats.

When

28 April 2017, 1600 Hrs IST

Where

Eden Gardens, Kolkata

The Protagonists

Sunil Narine continues to upset plenty of opponents – not only with his bowling but with his hard-hitting ways at the top of the order. KKR have been brave in taking the gamble – and that move is yielding results, as Narine has made quickfire scores of 42, 34 & 16 (combined strike-rate of 204) in his last three outings. Narine’s blitz at the top, and Robin Uthappa’s scintillating form, has afforded Gautam Gambhir to take a little bit of time to get going.

Delhi Daredevils’ Sanju Samson is one of those few players blessed with the ability to spot the ball a tad early. He also has the ability to time the ball – as against having to muscle the ball. The 22-year old has generally got off to starts, but has only one big score so far this season. Being the team’s in-form player, and with DD needing to quickly pile on the wins, they will need him to start making big scores consistently.

Match within the match

Gautam Gambhir against Zaheer Khan promises to make for an interesting contest given the latter’s knack of prising out left-hand batsmen. In the previous meeting between the two, the DD captain came up tops when he forced his opposite number to drive away from his body and had him caught at point.

Also look out for the contest between the pacers on the two sides; KKR’s pace attack has been the most successful in the business, while DD’s attack has a good mix of experience and exciting fast bowlers.

Head to Head

Overall: Matches played – 18, Kolkata Knight Riders Won – 11, Delhi Daredevils Won – 7

At the Eden Gardens: Matches played – 6, Kolkata Knight Riders Won – 5, Delhi Daredevils Won – 1

Earlier this season, KKR recovered from a top-order collapse to eke out to a 4-wicket win; at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground, they slumped to 21-3 in their chase of 169, but half-centuries by Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan put the innings back on track, before a mini-collapse at the back end brought life back into the match yet again. But Manish Pandey finished off the chase by scoring a boundary off the penultimate ball of the match.

Trivia

The Kolkata Knight Riders have the best overall scoring rate among all teams in VIVO IPL 2017 – 9.25.

The Delhi Daredevils batsmen have struck the fewest sixes among all teams this season – 32.

On the bowling front, Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils have the two highest dot ball percentage this season; their dot ball stats read 37.95% and 34.47% respectively.

What Next

For Kolkata Knight Riders: Return fixture (Away) against Sunrisers Hyderabad, April 30 (8pm)

For Delhi Daredevils: Return fixture (Away) against Kings XI Punjab at Indore, April 30 (4pm)