Playing XI
Venue Insights (Abu Dhabi)
- Highest Team Total: 206/4 By Punjab Against Chennai In 2014.
- Lowest Team Total: 70/10 By Bangalore Against Rajasthan In 2014.
- Highest Individual Score: 95 By Glenn Maxwell (Punjab) Against Chennai In 2014.
- Best Bowling Figures: 4/20 By Sunil Narine (Kolkata) Against Mumbai In 2014.
- Highest Partnership: 131 By Jacques Kallis And Manish Pandey (Kolkata) For 2nd Wicket Against Mumbai In 2014.
- Win Rate Batting First: 50% (5 Won; 5 Lost)
Top Fantasy Picks - Bowlers
After taking 4 wickets in his first 2 matches, Ravi Bishnoi then went wicket-less in his next three matches. But returned with the figures of 3/29 against SRH on Thursday. Against SRH he dismissed the likes of Bairstow, Warner and Abdul Samad. Bishnoi is also one of those ‘bang for your buck’ player.
Having picked up 5 wickets already, Mavi is the only KKR bowler apart from Cummins who has played in all 5 matches. He has a knack of picking up wickets of star studded top-order players.· His 5 scalps this season are: Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma, Samson, Buttler and Faf du Plessis.
Pat Cummins has been wicket-less in his last 2 matches, but a player of his caliber cannot be kept out of the game for too long. Plus, he does provide some fireworks with the bat down the order (he has already scored 67 runs this season)
Top Fantasy Picks - All Rounders
With the bat Sunil Narine has not got going but we all know how tough he is to face as far as his bowling is concerned. He has taken 26 wickets against KXIP in the IPL which is the 2nd most by a bowler against KXIP. Interestingly, his highest score in the IPL (75 from 36 balls) and his only fifer (5/19) have both come against Kings XI Punjab.
Russell has not got going yet into the tournament, but it was not required as well given the other KKR players have already come to the party. In his last 3 innings against KXIP, he has scored 103 runs and also picked up 6 wickets.
Scoring just 47 runs in 5 matches Maxwell is looking a bit rusty. However, he might as well brush off his bad form against Kolkata as he has scored 211 runs (SR of 174) in his last 5 matches against them.
Top Fantasy Picks - Batsmen & Keepers
KL Rahul did not get going in the last match, but that is completely irrelevant considering his purple patch this season. In his last 5 matches against KKR, he scored 181 runs at a SR of (at a SR of 180)
Nicholas Pooran, the pocket size dynamite hits sixes at will and his scores in his last 4 innings are 77, 33, 44, 25*. Also, the last time he faced KKR in the IPL, he hit a 27 ball 48 which included 4 sixes.
The last time Shubman Gill played at this venue he scored only 11 runs, but before that he had a 70* against SRH at this very venue. His scores against KXIP in the IPL: 65*, 16* and 14* (yet to be dismissed)
Probable XI
Punjab - KL Rahul (c), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Mandeep Singh, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Simran Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Mohammed Shami, Sheldon Cottrell.
Kolkata - Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (c)(wk), Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy, Kamlesh Nagarkoti.
Preview
Super Saturday will bring a double-header your way. In the afternoon game, Punjab will face Kolkata in Match 24 of the Indian T20 League 2020. A tie in the 1st match followed by a thumping win in the next, and we all thought finally Punjab have emerged as a strong team. But as the season has progressed, they've slipped and are pinned at the bottom of the points table. They are struggling with the team composition and inconsistencies of their players, especially the bowlers. We might see plenty of changes in their XI for this match. Kolkata, on their part, showed great character in the last match versus Chennai where they stood strong to gain 2 points. They would hope for more of the same and at the same time would love to get their big names firing to their potential. Should be favourites.
Punjab at Abu Dhabi: Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1
Kolkata at Abu Dhabi: Played 6, Won 3, Lost 3
Toss : Kolkata won the toss and have opted to bat first.