Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders - Match Preview

🏏 4 May 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

It’s getting interesting at both ends of the points table in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 with match #47 set to play out with an interesting theme at the lower end. Sunrisers Hyderabad play host to Kolkata Knight Riders at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium with the two teams on six points each although the ‘Men in Orange’ have a game in hand.

The Sunrisers won the reverse fixture by 23 runs, which was the second of their two wins from the first four matches. They had to wait a bit longer to make it three victories, which only came after three losses in their last match in Delhi. Aiden Markram’s side will look to turn it into some winning momentum and may need his foreign imports to rise up to the occasion. Heinrich Klaasen is fresh off scoring his maiden IPL fifty, while Harry Brook is still reminiscing about the scintillating hundred that he scored in the reverse H2H.

Hyderabad still appears imbalanced and the loss of Washington Sundar to a season-ending injury doesn’t help one bit. They may need the likes of Umran Malik (ER 10.35rpo) and Abdul Samad (SR 7.20rpo) to start being consistent and effective.

The Knight Riders are above the Sunrisers only because of a slightly better net run rate, but that is no solace to their status as one of the three laggards this season. They don’t have happy memories of facing them earlier in the season as well, with that defeat sparking five defeats across the next six matches with only a surprise win against Royal Challengers Bangalore being an exception.

Jason Roy’s injury-induced absence in the last match had robbed them of a player who top-scored for the Knight Riders in the preceding three matches! His return could give them an edge at the top of the order, while all eyes will be on the young leg-spinner Suyash Sharma. Since being smashed for 44 runs off four overs in the earlier H2H, Suyash has grown from strength to strength, picking up five wickets over his next four matches – with four of those scalps being top-three batters.

⚡ Key battle: Rahul Tripathi has crossed 15 only once in his last five matches, but the Hyderabad batter should fancy facing his old franchise having scored his career-best 93 against Kolkata with his H2H strike rate (of 9.87rpo) more than his corresponding IPL number (8.01rpo). His nemesis may well prove to be Andre Russell who has taken his wicket in three of the five H2Hs, coming at a reasonably cheap price (24 runs off 17 balls @ 8.47rpo).

📋 Stat attack: The all-time first-innings average at this venue in IPL matches is 159 while the same in this season has been 171.

• Three of the last four IPL matches at this venue have been won by the side batting first.
• An Indian batter top-scored for the Sunrisers in seven of their eight games in this IPL campaign, but the only exception came in the reverse fixture against the Knight Riders.
• Kolkata Knight Riders smashed a league-high 10.44 sixes per game in this campaign, while the Sunrisers conceded a league-low 5.88 sixes per game.
• Harry Brook was dismissed for fewer than 20 runs in each of the seven innings surrounding his century against Kolkata.
• Bhuvneshwar Kumar vs Andre Russell in IPL: 63/1 off 28 balls @13.50rpo in four innings (6x4, 5x6).
• T. Natarajan picked up Nitish Rana’s wicket in three of five IPL innings, but not before conceding at 10.89rpo (69 runs off 38 balls, 7x4, 5x6).
• Mayank Markande has been alternating two wickets with none in his last five matches, bookended by two against the Capitals.