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IPL 2020: KKR vs RR: Kolkata Knight Riders face stern Rajasthan Royals test in Dubai

IPL 2020: The Kolkata Knight Riders batsman will have their task cut out when they face a rampaging Rajasthan Royals in the twelfth match of the ongoing season.

The Rajasthan Royals have been in rampaging form this season

Bengaluru, Sept. 29: The Kolkata Knight Riders batsman will have their task cut out when they face a rampaging Rajasthan Royals in the twelfth match of the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday.
Two matches in, and the Rajasthan Royals have already become the team to watch out for. The Steve Smith-led side has scored 200+ scores in both their matches. The Royals stamped their authority when they chased down the highest tournament total of 224 against the Kings XI Punjab in their last match.
Coming into the back of such a morale-boosting win, the Royals will be a formidable lot when they face the Dinesh Karthik-led Kolkata Knight Riders. In their success, they have found two stars in Sanju Samson and Rahul Tewatia, who have outshone marquee players.
In his second match at the Royals, little known Haryana all-rounder Tewatia has got instant stardom for his 31-ball 53 against KXIP, which helped the side chase down a record 224 with three balls to spare against KXIP.
Struggling to get off the blocks quickly, Tewatia, who was on 17 from 23 deliveries with the team needing 51 from the last three overs, suddenly woke up from the slumber, smacking left-arm quick Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over to turn the tables for RR.
But the season so far belongs to Samson -- the wicketkeeper from Kerala.
Boasting of the season's highest strike-rate of 214.86, Samson has two successive half-centuries that has once again put him in contention for a longer rope in the Indian team as a keeper-batsman.
Skipper Steve Smith has been ever reliable, striking two half-centuries, while opener Jos Buttler will be waiting to explode.
To match or even surpass the Royals, KKR have the biggest stars in Andre Russell to go along with reigning World Cup winning English skipper Eoin Morgan, one of the best in limited-overs cricket. But both Morgan and Russell have got limited opportunities so far, having dropped down to No 5 and 6 respectively.
The fixture might just finally see them bat higher up, especially the star Jamaican, who was their highest run-getter last season with 510 runs at a astonishing strike rate of 204.81.
After falling to Mumbai Indians in their opener, the Knight Riders bounced back to notch up a convincing win over Sunrisers Hyderabad. The Knights notched their first win on the season riding on a good show from Shubman Gill and Morgan.
Wednesday promises to be another run feast and no target is unachievable this season. With the Royals at the other end, the Knight Riders batsmen will have to come out with all guns blazing if they are to stop the Rajasthan team's winning run. The teams batting first have won all five matches at the Dubai International Stadium in the ongoing edition.
Moreover, both Super-over matches have been played at Dubai this season and Wednesday's matches promises to be a blockbuster game.
Teams (from)
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (C and WK), Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Siddhesh Lad, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Varun Chakravarthy, Tom Banton, Rahul Tripathi, Chris Green, M Siddharth, Nikhil Naik, Ali Khan.
Rajasthan Royals: Steve Smith (captain), Jos Buttler, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Manan Vohra, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh, Oshane Thomas, Andrew Tye, David Miller, Tom Curran, Aniruddha Joshi, Shreyas Gopal, Riyan Parag, Varun Aaron, Shashank Singh, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Mayank Markande.
Match Starts at 7:30pm IST
Live on Star Sports Network
Live Streaming on Disney+ Hotstar
(With inputs from PTI)

Story first published: Tuesday, September 29, 2020, 17:17 [IST]
Other articles published on Sep 29, 2020