New Delhi: The 49th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 will be played between Kolkata Knight Riders and bottom ranked team in the points table, Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kane Williamson-led Sunrisers have already been knocked out of the playoffs race, but still will be looking to win today's match to end their campaign with some good games. On the other hand, under Eoin Morgan's captaincy, Kolkata will aim to attain a win in today's match at any cost.
In their last match, Hyderabad was defeated by table-toppers Chennai Super Kings, while Kolkata Knight Riders were defeated by Punjab Kings in a thrilling match. This season, in first encounter between the two teams, KKR had defeated SRH by 10 runs.
Today is a do-or-die game for Kolkata as they need to defeat Hyderabad to keep their hopes alive of reaching the IPL Playoffs.
Kolkata's Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill are in great batting form, but their middle order is definitely a matter of concern. There is still suspense over Andre Russell's fitness and if he is fit for this match, he will probably replace Tim Seifert.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have nothing left to lose and would definitely like to try their young players in today's match against Kolkata.
Kolkata Knight Riders Probable Playing XI: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell/Shakil Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson/Tim Southee, Varun Chakraborty, Shivam Mavi.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Probable Playing XI: Jason Roy, Wriddhiman Saha, Kane Williamson (Captain), Priyam Garg/ Manish Pandey, Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddharth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma/ Basil Thampi.