Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are all set to take on Delhi Daredevils (DD) in match no 42 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.
For the Dardevils, they have reached a must-win situation. They will have to win all their remaining games in order to give themselves a chance to qualify for the Playoff stages of the ongoing IPL. Meanwhile, KKR now has 11 points on the board from 10 matches and they would look to move further up the points table.
Here are some of the key battles from this match:
Gautam Gambhir vs Zaheer Khan: The KKR skipper has got the starts, but he has not converted them into bigger scores. He had a fantastic start to the tournament scoring three half centuries. He will have to face the veteran Indian paceman Zaheer Khan who has had an incredible comeback in this IPL. His economy rate is commendable and he would look to impress his selectors yet again on Thursday against KKR.
Robin Uthappa vs Imran Tahir: Uthappa had a slow start to the tournament, but eventually found his form back and now he is KKR's highest run-scorer. He along with Gambhir has given just the kind of starts that KKR wanted. Tahir, on the other hand, has bowled so far picking up 13 wickets in the tournament. His flatter trajectory and his knack of picking up wickets at intervals makes him a good T20 bowler.
Shreyas Iyer vs Umesh Yadav: Iyer has been the best batsman for the Daredevils and he has already notched up 309 runs. He is a naturally attacking batsman and does not hold himself back from playing his shot. Meanwhile, Umesh Yadav has been in good form and he is bowling with fierce pace and is getting the ball to swing as well.
Yuvraj Singh vs Brad Hogg: Yuvraj was happy to find his form back against the Mumbai Indians, but his knock went in vain as he ended up being on the losing side. He is a classy batsmen as the entire fraternity is aware of that and he can be equally dangerous if he starts hitting the ball from the middle of his willow. Hogg on the other hand has been the perfect replacement for Sunil Narine and has bowled extremely well. His googlies are really hard to pick up and can trouble the best in business.