The State of Play
“Cricket is turning into baseball”, Sam Curran declared after the Punjab Kings pulled off a record-breaking chase against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday, and he may just have a point.
The 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League has seen some incredible scores, and even a haul of 261 wasn’t safe for KKR last time out.
With their next match pitting them against another top batting outfit in the Delhi Capitals, is another high-scoring affair on the cards?
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It’s a quick turnaround for Kolkata ahead of Monday’s match at Eden Gardens, after Jonny Bairstow’s unbeaten 108 off 48 balls ensured Sunil Narine’s 32-ball 71 counted for nought on Friday.
KKR’s score of 261-6 was the seventh best in IPL history at the close of their innings, but they were immediately outdone by the Kings as they suffered a third loss in their last five matches.
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Immediately prior to that run, the Knight Riders hit another mammoth score of 272 to down the Capitals, and captain Shreyas Iyer will be looking for more of the same when the teams meet again on Monday.
“The way the batters batted was tremendous. You ask so much of them and they delivered,” Iyer said after Friday’s defeat.
“Both teams played tremendously, we just have to go back to the drawing board and see where we went wrong. Not defending the lead hurts but it’s still a great lesson for the players.”
All smiles at the Eden this evening 🫰😁 pic.twitter.com/vgY8n2iWdp
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 28, 2024
Delhi are no strangers to a high score of their own, racking up at least 220 in two of their last three games, including a huge 257 to beat the Mumbai Indians on Saturday.
The Capitals have won four of their last five matches to boost their playoff hopes, and Jake Fraser-McGurk has played a key role in their upturn.
He has smashed 247 runs in five innings after sitting out DC’s first five games of 2024, and assistant coach Pravin Amre has been delighted by his impact.
“He had to wait four or five games before getting a chance,” Amre said of Fraser-McGurk. “But even when we were watching him in the nets, he had something different, that X-factor.
“He is a natural. If you see his set-up, he believes in a stable base and he has excellent hand speed. When you are batting in the powerplay, you have only one fielder on the leg side. So that’s a good area to hit; even a mishit can get you a boundary.”
Expected line-ups
Kolkata Knight Riders: Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana.
Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Lizaad Williams, Mukesh Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed.
“𝘔𝘺 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘹” 🫡🔥 pic.twitter.com/qSoybnVM4y
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) April 28, 2024
How to watch
Sky have the rights to show the IPL to UK viewers in 2024 and will broadcast every game live. Monday’s match will be shown on Sky Sports Cricket from 2.50pm BST.
In India, the games can be streamed on the Jio Cinema app and website. They are also available across the Star Sports Network.
Prediction
Given the form of Salt, Narine and Fraser-McGurk among others, fans should expect to see plenty of big hitting on a pitch which has regularly seen scores of 200 or more this year.
Delhi fell some 106 runs short of KKR when the teams last met on April 3rd, though that contest did come before Fraser-McGurk burst onto the scene. We expect the Capitals to get closer this time around, but KKR have surpassed 200 runs in five of their eight games in the IPL this campaign – keeping pace with them is a massive ask.
