Indian Premier League 2020, Match 8: SunRisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders look to open account
Having slumped to defeat in their respective opening matches, SunRisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders will look rebound strongly and seal their first win in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) when the two sides battle it out at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Satuday.
The David Warner-led side did not have a perfect start to their IPL 2020 campaign as they slumped to a 10-run defeat at the hands of the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their first match at the Dubai International Stadium on September 21.
The Kolkata-based franchise, which is led by Dinesh Karthik, too kickstarted their campaign at the 13th season of the lucrative T20 tournament with a loss as they suffered a 49-run defeat against defending champions and four-time winners Mumbai Indians in their opening league match.
One of these two former champions will surely open their account in the points table when the two lock horns in the eighth match of the Dream11 IPL.
As far as head-to-head record is concerned, Kolkata Knight Riders hold an advantage over the Hyderabad-based franchise going into the match.
2016 champions SRH and two-time winners KKR have faced each other in a total of 17 matches in the IPL, with the latter side emerging victorious on 10 occasions.
However, SunRisers Hyderbad hold a slight advantage over Kolkata as far as the past five meetings between the two sides are concerned.Hyderabad have won three of the last five matches against KKR.
SRH are marred by injuries going into the clash as their Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has been ruled out of the IPL due to ankle injury. Kane Williamson, on the other hand, missed the first match due to a niggle.
The two squads are as follows:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (captain & wicketkeeper), Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Siddhesh Lad, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Varun Chakravarthy, Tom Banton (Wicketkeeper), Rahul Tripathi, Chris Green, M Siddharth, Nikhil Naik (Wicketkeeper), Ali Khan.
SunRisers Hyderabad: David Warner (Captain), Jonny Bairstow (Wicketkeeper), Kane Williamson, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Manish Pandey, Virat Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mitchell Marsh, Fabian Allen, Vijay Shankar, Sanjay Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha (Wicketkeeper), Shreevats Goswami (Wicketkeeper), Bavanaka Sandeep, Basil Thampi, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Billy Stanlake, T Natarajan, Abhishek Sharma.
The match will begin at 7.30 p.m IST in the absence of fans amid COVID-19 pandemic.The clash will be telecast on Star Sports Network, while the live streaming of the matches will also be available on Star’s streaming application Hotstar.
