Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan Royals

The 54th match of IPL 2021 is all set to give excitement to the fans as Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Rajasthan Royals in a virtual knockout match. For Kolkata Knight Riders, a win will mostly guarantee them a playoffs spot unless Mumbai Indians pull off something extraordinary in their last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals, are almost out of the tournament because of the loss against Mumbai Indians and will be looking to play as a party spoiler for Kolkata Knight Riders.

Head to Head Record:

The previous matches between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals have been cutthroat and the Head to Head record suggests that :

Matches Played: 24 matches
KKR Won: 12 matches
RR Won: 11 matches
Tie: 1 match

Even this time too, the competition looks a bit tough between both of them and will be looking for a win against each other.

Sharjah Cricket Stadium Record:

Sharjah Cricket Ground has been one of the finest grounds for batting. However, this time the pitches have been slow and are ideal for the spinners and slower ones. Bowlers have been enjoying bowling here.

Matches Played: 25
Matches won by Batting first team: 9
Matches won by Chasing team: 16
No Result: 0

Rajasthan Royals:

Rajasthan is on the verge of ending another disappointing season. After their embarrassing loss against Mumbai Indians, they need to beat Kolkata Knight Riders by a big margin to improve their net run rate and will also rely on the results of the matches of other teams. However, their chances of qualifying look bleak now.

Predicted Playing XI:

Liam Livingstone, Sanju Samson (C and WK), Yashaswi Jaswal, David Miller, Glenn Phillips, Shivam Dube, Rahul Tewatia, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, Shreyas Gopal, Kuldip Yadav

Bench Strength:

Anuj Rawat, Manan Vohra, K.C. Cariappa, Akash Singh, Oshane Thomas, Tabraiz Shamsi, Chris Morris, Riyan Parag, Mahipal Lomror, Evin Lewis, Mayank Markande, Kartik Tyagi

Players to watch out:

Evin Lewis and Yashaswi Jaiswal have done well for the team. However, an injury to Lewis could see Livingstone taking up his place. Apart from their captain, no one has got the form. Even in bowling, apart from Sakariya and Rahman, no one has done enough to take their team to the winning line.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

With a commanding win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders look all set to enter the Playoffs if they manage to win over Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians lose their next match. However, Kolkata has an advantage over Mumbai because of the better Net Run Rate that they have.

Predicted Playing XI:

Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik(wk), Eoin Morgan

Bench Strength:

Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Sandeep Warrier, Pawan Negi, Tim Seifert, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Prasidh Krishna, Lockie Ferguson, Andre Russel

Players to watch out:

For Kolkata Knight Riders, their young players have been doing the job for them. Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana are in great form. Besides them, Dinesh Karthik and in the bowling department, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy have done a great job for the team.

Final Predictions:

Between Kolkata and Rajasthan, it looks like Kolkata have an edge over them because of the previous matches. So we predict that Kolkata Knight Riders will easily beat Rajasthan Royals and will keep their playoff hopes alive. However, their qualification will depend on the result of the match between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad.