Match preview: KKR vs PBKS – In the 53rd IPL 2023 game on Monday, May 8, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will take on the Punjab Kings (PBKS) at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The Knight Riders are in 8th place with four wins in ten games and need to win their remaining four games to have a chance of making the playoffs. The Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in their previous match by five runs, defending their total of 171 runs. Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh played important innings. The award for Player of the Match went to Varun Chakravarthy because he defended nine runs in the final over.

Match preview: KKR vs PBKS

The Punjab Rulers have won five out of ten games and are now positioned seventh in the focus table. They scored 214 runs in their 20 overs against the Mumbai Indians in their most recent match, but they still lost. The team’s primary contributors were Liam Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma, who contributed 119 runs for the fourth wicket. Mumbai’s middle-order batsmen helped them chase down the target with seven balls remaining after losing an early wicket. Arshdeep Singh broke the Kings bowler record for the most runs conceded in an innings with 66 runs in his 3.5 overs.

In the IPL, KKR and PBKS have faced off 31 times. KKR have emerged triumphant in 20 matches, though PBKS have won just 11. The Kings have won three of the last five encounters with the Knight Riders. This also includes the main round of this season. In that game, PBKS scored 191 runs for the loss of five wickets and won by seven runs by means of the DLS technique.

Pitch report

Throughout the course of recent years, Eden Nurseries’ Kolkata has been the scene for 23 T20 games. In these matches, 176 runs have been scored in the first inning on average. In the upcoming game, it is anticipated that the pitch will be favourable for batting. The pacers have been especially effective here, representing 67% of the wickets taken. In contrast, over the past three years, the spinners have only been successful in taking 33% of the wickets at this location.

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PROBABLE PLAYING XI

Kolkata Knight Riders: RK Singh, JJ Roy, N Rana (C), AD Russell, SP Narine, VR Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, H Rana

Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Shahrukh Khan, SM Curran, R Dhawan, MW Short, LS Livingstone, P Simran Singh, JM Sharma (wk), RD Chahar, Harpreet Brar, and Arshdeep Singh