Preview: Eliminator – SRH vs KKR, IPL 2017

Two-time winners Kolkata Knight Riders will face last year’s champions, Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL eliminator in Bengaluru on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Rising Pune Supergiants won the first qualifier against Mumbai Indians to make their way into the final. The winner of Wednesday’s match will face the Mumbai Indians on 19 May in the second Qualifier.
If KKR gets eliminated against SRH then they will have no one to blame. KKR had a better first half in IPL as they were sitting on the top of the table until the downfall of the team started. They have lost four matches out of last five they played. The only win which came to them was against RCB which itself is a weak team in this season. SRH, on the other hand, had their ups and downs. They were on the brink of playoffs when KXIP and RPS were fighting for a spot. If momentum is the key here then KKR might be in the serious trouble. Here are the key players for both sides and h2h stats.
Head to Head record
Matches played ? 11
Sunrisers Hyderabad Won ? 4
Kolkata Knight Riders Won ? 7

Key Players for SRH

David Warner

The last time these two sides met SRH won the match, courtesy of a brilliant century by David Warner. He currently holds the Orange Cap so SRH will depend heavily on him. In the last match of SRH, David Warner looked in good form as he scored unbeaten 69 runs. Warner has been at his best, scoring 600-plus runs in back-to-back seasons. KKR will surely need to come up with a strategy to stop Warner.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

As far as SRH’s bowling is concerned, Rashid Khan and B Kumar have been on fire. Kumar is holding the Purple Cap at the moment with 25 wickets in 13 games. He needs to keep going with his good form if his team wants to restrict KKR to a below average score.

Key Players for KKR

Chris Lynn

Chris Lynn has been on fire lately. He was smashing every bowler at the start of IPL until the moment he got injured and had to sit out for some matches. In his comeback match against RCB, he scored a 21 ball half-century and that just shows that he may have sat some matches out but his form will continue. KKR will need his explosive batting today if they want to post a good total.

Sunil Narine

Sunil Narine is one of the best players in T20 format but this year he has been in bad form with the ball but he has some good innings with the bat. Kudos to Gautam Gambhir for promoting him to opening slot. The decision of Gambhir paid off when Narine smashed a 16 ball half century. Narine and Chris Lynn will open the inning for KKR and if they managed to build a partnership there then KKR can score more than 200 runs.