AHMEDABAD: Kolkata Knight Riders<\/a>‘ morale-boosting, emphatic 81-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens has set up an enticing clash against the formidable Gujarat Titans<\/a> at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
IPL 2023 SCHEDULE<\/a> | <\/span>IPL 2023 POINTS TABLE<\/a>
Allrounder Shardul Thakur‘s heroics and the superb show of the three spinners came at the right moment for KKR<\/a>, reeling under the exit of Shreyas Iyer. It has given new captain Nitish Rana, who is himself struggling for runs, some much-needed breathing space as teams look for a head start early into the 16th season of the IPL.
The three spinners – Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and newcomer Suyash Sharma – didn’t allow the Bangalore batters to flex their muscles and spun a web around them to take a combined haul of nine wickets. How they go about their business against the likes of Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, David Miller<\/a> and Co. could go a long way in deciding the outcome on Sunday. <\/p>\n
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IPL 2023: High-flying Gujarat Titans take on Kolkata Knight Riders<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Titans have, more or less, all their bases covered but have not been asked to defend a total yet. Whether the Knight Riders go in with the three spinners is a decision that will be taken on match day, confirmed their bowling coach Bharat Arun.
“We will be taking a good look at the wicket and the ‘Impact Player’ rule in place gives us a lot of options. It is exciting to go with three mystery spinners. It is going to be a very dynamic decision, and we will take it on the go,” said Arun. Titans’ Miller said that they have been preparing to tackle the mystery spinners of KKR.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n“KKR have a strong team, some very good mystery bowlers. We have been doing everything that we can over the last day or two to counter that,” he said. Three former Titans players – Lockie Ferguson, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Jason Roy (though he opted out of IPL last season) – are now part of the KKR squad, which will add an intrigue to this clash, which was won by the Titans last season.
KKR opener Venkatesh Iyer, and the middle-order batters Mandeep Singh and Rana have not really sparkled with their batting and will have their task cut out against a formidable Titans attack. Backing Rana amid his struggles, Arun said: “Rana is young, has a very good cricketing acumen and that’s the reason we chose him as captain. We are confident he will be doing well for us.”<\/p>\n
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