IPL 2017: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab, 5 factors of winning

#2 With the ball

Will Narine finally deliver at home?

KKR is usually known for a great bunch of bowlers but this year, they haven’t been up to the mark as the scores of 183 and 180 have been scored against them. This has much do with the kind of surfaces they played on. Rajkot and Mumbai produced high scoring pitches and they will play their first home game now.

The pitch at Eden Gardens was relaid a few months back and it won’t assist the spinners like it used to which was also KKR’s strength. With Umesh Yadav now back in the frame, it will be interesting to see Kolkata’s pace combination for the next game.

KXIP had put up two wonderful shows with the ball in their last two games and they rely heavily on Indian bowlers. The responsibility would once again be on the pacers and Sandeep Sharma and Varun Aaron were instrumental in their wins. Mohit Sharma did well in the first game but received a beating at the hands of AB de Villiers in the second game and he would need resurrection.

Their biggest positive in that department has been the bowling of Axar Patel. The left-arm spinner had figures of 27/1 and 12/1 in two matches and has an economy rate of just 4.88. He might not get help from the pitch this time around and hence he needs to play the role of the run-stopper once more.