Playing XI
Top Fantasy Picks-All Rounders
Sam Curran is the only player this season to have a double of 150+ runs and 10+ wickets (173 runs and 13 wickets); thus giving out tough competition to all the other all-rounders in the fray.
In Narine’s last 5 matches against Chennai, he scored 69 runs and took 8 wickets which is more than impressive for any all-rounder. Also, in his only match at Dubai this season, he took a wicket and scored 15 runs with the bat.
The wicket-taking void by Chennai spinners can be easily filled in by Santner as the pitches have slowed down and he did pick up a wicket in the previous match. Also, he can be very much handy with the bat down the order.
Top Fantasy Picks-Bowlers
With three 2-wicket hauls in the last 4 matches, Deepak has finally found his rhythm and with no qualification pressure, it might be a good time for him to showcase his abilities.
So far Ferguson has picked up 6 wickets in the 4 matches that he has played in, with never being wicket-less so far.
With 13 wickets, he is the leading wicket-taker for Kolkata this season. Watch out for him as he has taken a 5-fer in a match prior and also the national call-up might boost up his confidence.
Top Fantasy Picks-Batsmen and Keepers
With 378 runs, Gill is the leading run-getter for Kolkata this season. He has played only one match at Dubai so far this season and in that he scored 47 of 34 balls in that.
Rayudu’s score at Dubai in the last 3 matches read : 39, 41 and 42. Also, now that Chennai is out of contention this season, players will look to play more freely.
It was Chennai against which Tripathi scored his only fifty of this season. He might be an interesting pick given his record against Chennai in the IPL (135 runs in 4 matches, SR of 146)
Probable XI
Kolkata - Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Eoin Morgan (c), Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
Chennai - Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, N Jagadeesan, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir, Monu Kumar
Preview
Match 49 sees Kolkata and Chennai tee off against each other, for one last time this season.
The Lion is already on its way out, while Morgan's Gladiators find themselves in a perilous spot if they don't win. That is being at the mercy of other things to work in their favour.
Chennai's slide has been consistent and fairly predictable early on, but they did well against Bangalore in their last game. Their youngsters showed a lot of spark and if they can finish off their remaining 2 games with a high, bodes well for them ahead of the next edition.
Kolkata meanwhile are in contention for the playoffs but need to steal a win here. Their batting and bowling have not performed as a unit and that needs to happen in this game.
One side has no burden on it while the other carries the weight of expectations. Will Kolkata triumph or will the weight weigh them down? We shall see.
Toss
Chennai won the toss and elected to bowl first.