Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Average score at venue: 165
Win percentage while batting first: 44.68%
Pitch conditions:
- Team Kolkata will look to impose themselves both with the bat and the ball against Team Rajasthan the way Team Mumbai did on Tuesday night at this venue, recording a comprehensive 8-wicket victory and the second biggest in regards to balls to spare.
- The newly laid pitch at Sharjah has proved to be a tricky surface for teams to bat on, particularly Team Rajasthan, who recorded the second lowest total in the history of Indian T20 League for any completed innings.
- Fast bowlers have a wicket-share percentage of 68.28% at the Sharjah Cricket Ground, which is yet to witness a high score so far in Indian T20 League2021. Spin bowlers have taken 31.72% of the wickets at this venue.
Weather prediction:
It will be a bright, sunny and hot day in Sharjah on Thursday with the temperature soaring as high as 37°C right around afternoon. The temperature, however, will steadily drop down to 33°C after the sunset while the humidity level will cross 60% as well.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD:
Matches played: 24
Team Kolkata won: 12
Team Rajasthan won: 11
No result: 1
Last 5 matches:
Team Kolkata won: 3
Team Rajasthan won: 2
No result: –
Top 3 players from Team Kolkata: Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Sunil Narine
Top 3 players from Team Rajasthan: Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Evin Lewis
Top picks for H2H/WTA contest (top 5 players each):
Top 5 players from Team Kolkata: Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Shubman Gill
Top 5 players from Team Rajasthan: Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Evin Lewis, Shivam Dube, Chetan Sakariya
Q&A:
Should I pick more bowlers, batsmen or all-rounders?
It is a contest between two teams who can achieve a lot with the firepower that they have in their ranks, but still they have not delivered on the promise they carry. What is also important to be noted here is the fact that teams batting second at Sharjah have been able to win 5 out of the 7 matches that have been played in the second leg of Indian T20 League 2021. Certainly, the freshly-laid pitch has proved to be a lot different than the one last year, on which teams raked up scores around 200 with ease. It will be important to have a long batting line-up along with a potent bowling attack given that this is an important clash in the perspective of Team Kolkata, who will want to go big with the bat and record a huge victory which helps them in the Net Run Rate (NRR) scenario.
From which team should I pick more players in my XI? Which team is stronger?
Team Kolkata are comfortably placed at the fourth position in the Indian T20 League 2021 points table which gives them enough confidence to make it to the Indian T20 League 2021 playoffs, but they still have to win their last match which is against Team Rajasthan, a team which has been struggling on all counts. In the KKR camp, there are several players who are at the top of their game such as Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. On the other hand, Rajasthan have had sporadic displays of brilliance coming from their captain Sanju Samson, openers Evin Lewis and Yashasvi Jaiswal as well as all-rounder Shivam Dube. KKR are certain leaders from the team compared to Team Rajasthan and they should have more players featuring in the fantasy cricket XI.
MORE INFORMATION: Team Rajasthan are languishing at the second last position in the Indian T20 League 2021 points table. Their crushing defeat at the hands of Team Mumbai by 8 wickets provided a body blow to their hopes of making it to the final four. With only one match left, a victory will give Team Rajasthan 2 points which will take their overall total to 12, but a poor NRR of -0.737 is set to harm them since the teams placed above them — Team Punjab, Team Mumbai and Team Kolkata — have better NRRs. Among all these teams, it is Team Kolkata whose NRR is not in negative and a victory should help them push on to be the fourth and final team to qualify for the Indian T20 League2021 knockouts round.
Players’ form: This will be the final meeting between Team Kolkata and Team Rajasthan before the teams in Indian T20 League get disbanded ahead of the mega auction in 2022. Before it all ends, both the teams would want to give everything that they have and record a victory to sign off on a high note. A victory by a huge margin may still not be enough for Team Rajasthan but it will certainly be beneficial for Team Kolkata who can remain ahead of Team Mumbai, since the five-time champions also have only one match left to play. The likes of Iyer, Gill, Tripathi, Rane, Narine and Chakravarthy will be expected to deliver for Team Kolkata whereas Rajasthan would want to play the role of party spoilers, given that they can surprise even the best teams in the tournament when they are at the top of their game.
Changes in squad (if any): NO
LIKELY XIs:
Team Kolkata: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (c), Shakib Al Hasan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sunil Narine, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee, Varun Chakravarthy
Team Rajasthan: Evin Lewis, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c&wk), Shivam Dube, Glenn Phillips, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Kuldip Yadav, Shreyas Gopal, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya
FANTASY XI: Venkatesh Iyer (c), Evin Lewis (vc), Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana, Shivam Dube, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sunil Narine, Mustafizur Rahman, Tim Southee, Varun Chakravarthy.
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Team Kolkata eye big win against out of sorts Team Rajasthan
An inconsistent Team Kolkata will be under pressure to record a huge victory against Team Rajasthan in their final league match of Indian T20 League 2021 and remain ahead of the five-time champions and defending title winners Team Mumbai in the points table with the knockouts round looming large.
Team Kolkata are currently placed at the 4th position in the Indian T20 League2021 points table with 12 points in 13 matches after 6 wins and 7 defeats and most importantly, a NRR of 0.294 which is better than the other contenders in Team Mumbai, Team Punjab and even Team Rajasthan — who all have it in negative.
Given that both Team Mumbai and Team Kolkata can finish at 14 points each provided they win their last matches, KKR would want to record a huge victory against a struggling Team Rajasthan which eventually helps them to improve their NRR. A better NRR will help Team Kolkata qualify for the Indian T20 League 2021 play-offs as the fourth and final team, since the top teams in Chennai, Delhi and Bangalore have already made it to the final round.
Team Kolkata will bank upon their battery of in-form players such as Iyer, Tripathi, Rana, Gill, Narine and Chakravarthy to produce a dominating display against Team Rajasthan, who have plenty of potential but no consistency to make any sort of challenge.
Team Rajasthan will certainly want to bounce back from their huge defeat at the hands of Team Mumbai by 8 wickets, a contest in which they were restricted to a poor total of 90/9 and ended up losing the game in which the opponents knocked over the target in only 8.2 overs.
Team Rajasthan have far too long depended on their captain Samson to get the runs, but recent showings from their opening pair of Lewis and Jaiswal, as well as by Dube later on in the batting order, gives them hope for a better final game in Indian T20 League 2021.
