Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Average score at venue: 161
Win percentage while batting first: 40.43%
Pitch Conditions:
- The pitch at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium remains a haven for batting as chasing teams have won 4 matches compared to teams defending, who have 3 wins. The last 3 matches at Dubai have been won by teams batting second.
- With a wicket-share percentage of 67.12%, fast bowlers have dominated proceedings in Dubai compared to the spin bowlers, who have 32.81% of wickets coming their way.
Weather prediction:
The day on Sunday will be mostly cloudy in Dubai with temperature being at a high of 37°C during the afternoon, dropping down to a static of 33°C in the evening. The humidity percentage will be steady at 55% during the match hours on Sunday evening in one of the most popular cities in the world.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD:
Matches played: 20
Team Kolkata won: 13
Team Hyderabad won: 7
No result: –
Last 5 matches:
Team Kolkata won: 4
Team Hyderabad won: 1
No result: –
Top 3 players from Team Kolkata: Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy
Top 3 players from Team Hyderabad: Wriddhiman Saha, Jason Roy, Rashid Khan
Top picks for H2H/WTA contest (top 5 players each):
Top 5 players from from Team Kolkata: Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine
Top 5 players from Team Hyderabad: Wriddhiman Saha, Jason Roy, Rashid Khan, Kane Williamson, Jason Holder
Q&A:
Should I pick more bowlers, batsmen or all-rounders?
Team Kolkata have three of their batsmen who are in form and they can deliver in any circumstances and situations. Venkatesh Iyer has been the find of the season for Kolkata, who have also been bolstered with the form of Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine to a large extent. While Kolkata are in desperate need of some runs from their captain Eoin Morgan and even former captain Dinesh Karthik, they can depend on the likes of Tim Seifert — who replaced Andre Russell — and even Narine in their batting line-up to garner quick runs towards the end. On the other hand, Team Hyderabad batsmen have continued to misfire, which makes a balance slightly difficult to strike since most of the Hyderabad batsmen are struggling for runs. Adding more to this department will be a smart move given that there are some surprise packages in both the teams who can chip in with wickets.
From which team should I pick more players in my XI? Which team is stronger?
Despite winning only 5 matches out of their 12 played so far, Team Kolkata are steadily placed at the 4th spot in the points table and they would certainly want to move upwards hereon. In order to do so, Kolkata have the necessary firepower in their ranks to strike back against a team which has been faltering on all counts — Team Hyderabad. The Kane Williamson-led side has only 2 victories to show from 11 matches so far, which means their campaign is effectively over but they would still want to punch above their weight this season and try and influence some results in their favour. Given the kind of performance that Kolkata has shown in the second leg of Indian T20 League in the UAE, they should have more players featuring in any fantasy cricket XI team.
MORE INFORMATION: Team Kolkata will want some of their players such as Shubman Gill, Morgan and Karthik to find form with the bat given that they intend to cause some serious challenge to the teams that are placed above them in the Indian T20 League 2021 points table. None of these players have been able to make a strong mark in Indian T20 League 2021 competition with the bat, yet they occupy critical batting positions in the line-up. On the other hand, Team Hyderabad looked completely clueless as to how to win cricket matches. Their house stands in a great disorder following the exit of David Warner from the leadership role as well as the playing XI. Hyderabad do not seem to have found the right balance to play with, and this has been a constant area of concern for them in this Indian T20 League season.
Players’ form: Kolkata will hope that their young gun in Iyer continues to fire both with the bat and the ball and make up for the lack of form of his opening partner Gill, who is yet not in the situation to be dropped. Tripathi and Rana are their biggest hopes in the middle order whereas Kolkata will also want some more fireworks from Seifert in this Indian T20 League season. With the ball, while Narine and Varun Chakravarthy have been among wickets, the same cannot be said for the Kolkata fast bowling line-up which is again an area of concern for them. On their part, Hyderabad will hope that things fall in the right place for them on Sunday evening both with the bat and the ball since they are evidently struggling in all departments.
Changes in squad (if any): NO
LIKELY XIs:
Team Kolkata: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Tim Seifert, Sunil Narine, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee, Varun Chakravarthy.
Team Hyderabad: Jason Roy, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Kane Williamson (c), Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddharth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma.
FANTASY XI: Wriddhiman Saha (vc&wk), Venkatesh Iyer (c), Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Abhishek Sharma, Jason Holder, Sunil Narine, Rashid Khan, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Tim Southee.
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Confident Kolkata eye big win against hapless Hyderabad
For any cricket enthusiast who takes keen interest in the proceedings in the Indian T20, there lies a huge area of interest as well as concern as to what is happening in the Team Hyderabad camp. Having done away with the face of the franchise; their most successful and decorated player in David Warner, Team Hyderabad have still not been able to revive their wretched campaign in this Indian T20.
Team Hyderabad have stumbled from one loss to another in this Indian T20 League and however amount of firefighting that they have done, has not yielded them consistent results. The English explosive opening batsman Jason Roy began his Indian T20 League stint with the franchisee with a splendid knock of 60 to set up a victory against Rajasthan Royals, but since then his bat has gone quiet.
Warner is the only player who has made 4,000 runs alone for Team Hyderabad, scoring record number of runs, hundreds and even half-centuries for the franchise while leading the team at the same these years. However, his replacement in Williamson is yet to get into a position where he can be described as a man leading the team with example, while the other big guns are also having ordinary runs.
Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan and his overseas teammate Jason Holder are two men who can influence results of T20 matches by themselves. But despite the presence of these big names in their side, Team Hyderabad have continued to persist with uncapped Indian players ahead of the experienced international stars in the batting line-up. While it is certainly erroneous for the team management to not look at all the possible combinations, it will be another thing that the team has had terrible luck in Indian T20 League 2021.
For Kolkata to move up in the Indian T20 League 2021 points table, consistency is a big question given that they have lost again as soon as they have won a game. The Morgan-led side is coming off a 5-wicket defeat at the hands of Punjab Kings, despite scoring in excess of 160 batting first.
Nevertheless, Kolkata will certainly bank on their dominating record against Team Hyderabad. In 20 matches overall, Kolkata have won 13 while Sunrisers have been able to win only 7. As far as the last 5 matches are concerned, odds should be in favour of Kolkata to win on Sunday night given that they have won 4 of these games which also includes the two-time Indian T20 League winning side clinching the one-over eliminator in Abu Dhabi last year.
