xtratime Logo

[caption id="attachment_43078" align="aligncenter" width="580"] Kolkata Knight Riders will face Delhi Daredevils in an IPL encounter on Friday. Image Source: twitter[/caption] Kolkata: High on confidence, Kolkata Knight Riders will look to continue their winning momentum when they lock horns with depleted Delhi Daredevils in an Indian Premier League encounter at the Eden Gardens on Friday. The two time IPL champions are in prime form in both home and away matches in the season 10 of the cash-rich league. KKR have won six out of eight matches and they have 12 points in their kitty with a healthy run rate of +1.153. On the other hand, Zaheer Khan led Delhi are holding the seventh spot in the points table with four points from six matches. After beating Virat Kolhli’s RCB with a huge margin of 82 runs, KKR comprehensively beat Rising Pune Supergiant in Pune on Wednesday. Having suffered a hat-trick of losses, Daredevils, on the other hand, will be playing their first match in six days and the captain-mentor duo of Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid would hope that they return rejuvenated against an in-form team enjoying a 7-11 win-loss record. Delhi have a top-class pace bowling attack in Pat Cummins, Chris Morris and Kagiso Rabada, who made an impressive debut in their last match in Mumbai, which they lost by 14 runs. With Zaheer lending his vast experience and home lad Mohammad Shami's familiarity with the conditions, Daredevils' pace battery would relish the transformed Eden Gardens wicket, which aids pace and bounce. Countering Sunil Narine up front will be their first task as more often the Trinidadian has successfully bamboozled the opposition with his clean striking at the top of the order. Narine's unexpected success with the bat has ensured that KKR do not miss the injured Chris Lynn who's recovering from a shoulder injury after his two-match blitz. Narine (182.66) is only second to Lynn (192.30) as far as strike rate is concerned, a fact that can be attributed to KKR's stupendous success. Narine scored 34 from 17 balls in a low-scoring tie against RCB where none of the KKR batters could even post 20, and it was worse for Kohli and Co who could not even get to a double digit score. Last night Narine was run out but his 11-ball 16 had given the start and the momentum needed for Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir to complete the 183 chase by seven wickets and 11 balls to spare. For DD, half the battle will be won if their pace attack is able to run through the KKR top-order. Shami could be the x-factor in these conditions. It's not only the batsmen who have been doing the job effortlessly for KKR but their spin and pace bowlers have also contributed. Uthappa may have sealed their chase with a spectacular 47-ball 87 but one cannot discount chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, who removed Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Manoj Tiwary in four balls. Teams (from): Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Darren Bravo, Trent Boult, Piyush Chawla, Nathan Coulter Nile, Colin De Grandhomme, Rishi Dhawan, Sayan Ghosh, Shaikb-Al-Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Ishank Jaggi, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Woakes, Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Ankit Rajpoot, Suryakumar Yadav, Robin Uthappa and Umesh Yadav. Delhi Daredevils: Zaheer Khan (capt), Mohammad Shami, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant, CV Milind, Khaleel Ahmed, Pratyush Singh, Murugan Ashwin, Aditya Tare, Shashank Singh, Ankit Bawane, Navdeep Saini, Corey Anderson, Angelo Mathews, Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada, Chris Morris, Carlos Brathwaite, Sam Billings.