New Delhi: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) need a big win in their last league match today i.e. Wednesday to keep their hopes of reaching the IPL 2022 playoffs alive, while Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will play this match. Will try to make it to the top of the points table by winning KKR are sixth in the table with 12 points from six wins from 13 matches and even if the team manages to win this match by a huge margin, they will still have to rely on the results of other matches to qualify for the playoffs.
The Lucknow team is one step away from securing a place in the play-offs. The team has 16 points from 13 matches and a win in this match will decide its playoff ticket. The match between the two teams will be played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. The team of two-time champion KKR reached the finals last year, but this season they could not maintain the momentum. The team, however, kept their hopes alive by winning the last two matches against Mumbai Indians (MI) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). The team led by Shreyas Iyer defeated Hyderabad by 54 runs in the last match due to the all-rounder game of Andre Russell and the strong performance of the bowlers.
After the top-order faltering in this match, Andre Russell and Sam Billings took Kolkata to 177 for six and then the bowlers did their job well. The team of Lucknow would like to break the chain of two consecutive defeats in this match. The team's batsmen have disappointed in both these matches. The team is over-dependent on captain Lokesh Rahul. He has scored two centuries in the season, but has failed to score big in the last three matches. If Lucknow has to win this match, then Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Jason Holder and Ravi Bishnoi will have to bowl well.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer (c), Sheldon Jackson, Sam Billings (wk), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Varun Chakraborty.
Lucknow Super Giants: Quinton de Kock (wk), KL Rahul (c), Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Ayush Badoni/Manish Pandey, Marcus Stoinis/Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Dushmantha Chamira, Avesh Khan.
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