The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will play the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 25 of IPL 2022 on 15 April. The game will be played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Having lost their opening two matches, SRH have since rebounded by beating defending champions Chennai Super Kings, and an expansion franchise, Gujarat Titans, to breathe life into their playoff challenge.
Against Gujarat, captain Kane Williamson finally return to runs, while Nicholas Pooran gave a hint of his capabilities, with an unbeaten 34. Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and T. Natarajan have provided their attack better balance, but they have lost all-rounder Washington Sundar to injury. Left-arm spinner J. Suchith is expected to deputise.
Kolkata disappointed in their last match, losing by 44 runs to the Delhi Capitals after failing to chase down 216. Despite that, they are likely to resist the temptation to make changes and are likely to stick to the same starting XI.
Their bowling attack failed to cope with the pressure they were put under by the Delhi batters that day, and will need to tighten up to make sure there are not too many free runs on offer to the Hyderabad batters.
The venue has produced high-scoring encounters so far this season, while seamers have also found some swing with the new ball. The side that wins the toss will want to bowl because of the likely effect of the evening dew.
Likely XIs
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (c), Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Shashank Singh, J. Suchith, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Marco Jansen, Umran Malik, T Natarajan
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Sam Billings (wk), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav, Rasikh Salam, Varun Chakravarthy
Fantasy Tips
- Venkatesh shrugged off a poor start to the season to score a fifty in the match against Mumbai. He is tipped to have another good knock in this match and set it up for one of the big hitters like Russell or Narine to follow-up.
- Bhuvneshwar, twice Purple Cap winner, took two key wickets against Gujarat including that of Shubman Gill. He will continue that form against Kolkata.
- Cummins can have a big match with both bat and ball. He has already equalled the record for the fastest IPL fifty this season. This can be the game he shows his prowess with the ball.
Streaming
Match 25 between SRH and KKR will start at 19:30 on Friday, April 15th. You can watch the match on the Star Network and Hotstar.