FANTASY
Follow UsOn Thursday evening, Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium will witness two teams taking on each other with completely contrasting fortunes. On one hand, Delhi Capitals are on a roll - winning four out of six games this season. Kolkata Knight Riders, on the other hand, with two marginal wins, have only half the points of their opposition to stay behind in a race that is heating up really quickly.
HEAD TO HEAD IN IPL
OVERALL: MATCHES – 26, KKR – 14 Wins, DC – 11 Wins
LAST FIVE MATCHES: KKR – 1 WIN, DC – 4 Wins
While you could go for the above team, you also have the option of choosing your own team from Cricket.com’s Fantasy Research Centre. Based on algorithms, we have come up with one team.
GROUND DETAILS
The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad has a 1st Batting Average Score of 149, with batting first teams winning 33.33% of the games. We saw the astonishing impact of the toss in the last India-England T20 series with 158 being the highest total chased. Pacers have been the dominating proposition at the venue with 67.65% wickets but that says a little about how impactful spinners have been here. So don’t be surprised if Axar Patel and Sunil Narine come to the party and destroy the statistics single-handedly come Thursday evening.
SUGGESTED CAPTAIN
Shikhar Dhawan - With 265 runs from six games at an average of 44.17, Dhawan is at the top of the pile in this Indian Premier League. A batsman, whose transformation as a batsman, is a clear definition of what a free-flowing mindset can do, Dhawan can carry the same momentum to the game against Kolkata Knight Riders. The odds of high return are high when Dhawan leads the troupe with 2X points being complimented by the sequential pattern of scores.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Dhawan to score 14-22 runs
X-factors
One of the hardest hitters of the cricket ball, Andre Russell proved the other day his impact is still one of the most devastating in T20 cricket. CSK had almost lost the game thanks to his prolific batting and then some measured death bowling this season makes him a point booster in any fantasy side. Bank him to give you a healthy dose.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Russell to score 15-23 runs and take 0-1 wickets
Prithvi Shaw has scored 241 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders in just four innings at an average of over 60. He has also hit three fifties in the four matches against them in the IPL. It all points to the fact that Shaw, who has already scored 187 runs at 31.17, will continue his good work against the Kolkata-based side.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Shaw to score 23-35 runs
Pat Cummins’ rise as a pure pinch hitter down the order has been so revealing for KKR that it almost got to a point where he is considered as a better batsman than many top-order batsmen. He might not have been able to take many wickets with the ball, but a star nonetheless and KKR would surely bank on him to deliver the goods.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Cummins to take 1-2 wickets