Key battles within the battle to decide the Kolkata-Punjab contest

It is a quick turnaround for Kolkata Knight Riders. Scheduled to play Match 8 on Friday, they are the first team to play two games in three days. Match 6 must have taken a lot out of them. They fought hard against Royal Challengers Bangalore but came short in a low-scoring thriller. Such fighting spirit when chips are down can lead to winning the war at the expense of a smaller battle. 

In Punjab Kings, they face one of the beefiest opponents of the competition. The northernmost team in the tournament flexed their muscles in their season opener, chasing down 205 with an over to spare. The run chase vindicated their tag as the best Punjab side in a number of years. 

Kolkata’s bowling has fired in both games while it is the batting that gives Punjab the dominant look. Hence, Kolkata's bowling versus Punjab’s batting will be at the helm of this contest. However, there is a small twist. 

Can Umesh continue to wreak havoc? 

A major reason why Kolkata’s bowling has clicked is Umesh Yadav. The right-arm seamer has struck multiple times in the powerplay in each of the two games thus far. It has prevented Kolkata from getting exposed on the bowling front that has Andre Russell as their fifth bowler - an injury-prone and mercurial candidate for the job. Since 2021, he has an economy of 10.3, a touch too high for the fifth bowler's role.

Therefore, early wickets are paramount for Kolkata. Their task will be more onerous facing Punjab’s opening pair. 2020 onwards, Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan average 48.1 and 39.6 in the powerplay respectively. Mayank has been dismissed only 9 out of 24 times within the powerplay while Dhawan only 14 in 34 innings. They just don’t get out early and that’s where Kolkata’s task will be cut out. 

Can Kolkata match Punjab’s intent? 

Punjab’s successful run chase against Bangalore has set an early benchmark for other sides. Barring Raj Bawa who got out for a duck and Shahrukh Khan who had to show responsibility for Punjab to cross the line safely, all of their batters scored at a strike rate excess of 130. 

Kolkata will have to match their intent. Their deep batting resources run till number eight. If you include Tim Southee, it extends to number nine. Despite a collapse against Bangalore, the Kolkata head coach didn’t mind the approach

"I actually loved the intent,” said McCullum. “I thought the intent was great. You back the fact that you are playing the extra batter and you are playing a long batting lineup. You don't anticipate getting bowled out obviously,” he explained. 

Hence, we can expect both sides to keep their foot on the accelerator. Of course, a lot will be dictated by the nature of the pitch. 

The Contest

Shreyas Iyer versus Rahul Chahar

Leg spin has been the only bowling form to trouble the Kolkata skipper Shreyas Iyer in IPL. 2019 onwards, he averages only 19.8 facing right-arm wrist spinners. Rahul Chahar has accounted for two of his 12 dismissals against leg-spin. Iyer averages only 3.5 versus Chahar which underlines a battle to watch out for. Kolkata will need their skipper to usher them after 128 all out and for that to happen, his contest against Chahar is irrefutable.

Sunil Narine versus Punjab

Sunil Narine’s 31 wickets versus Punjab is the joint most for a bowler versus an opposition in IPL. In addition, he averages 23.4 with the bat against them, pretty decent for his pinch-hitting skills. Both of Narine’s best bowling (5/19) and batting performance (75) in IPL have come playing Punjab.

He will be vital with the ball at least owing to his ability to cease the flow of runs. In his eight overs this tournament as yet, Narine’s economy stands at an impressive 3.4 runs per over. Kolkata will eagerly want him to weave his magic against Punjab yet again and restrict their explosive batting. 

Probable XIs

Kolkata Knight Riders

McCullum mentioned soreness in Russell’s arm. In case he misses, they have a role-based like-for-like replacement in Chamika Karunaratne. That seems to be the only possible change in their XI

Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Sam Billings, Andre Russell/ Chamika Karunaratne, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy

Punjab Kings

Kagiso Rabada has started practicing with the side after completing his quarantine. He will take Sandeep Sharma’s place in the XI from the previous match where Punjab played three overseas players. The rest of the XI should remain the same.

Mayank Agarwal (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa (wk), Liam Livingstone, Raj Bawa, Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh

Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Date & Time: Apr 1, 07:30 PM IST