IPL 2018, DD vs KKR: 5 player battles to look forward to 

#1 Rishabh Pant v Sunil Narine

With 227 runs in 6 games so far, DD’s wicketkeeper-batsman is their highest run-scorer so far in the tournament and with a strike rate of 170.67 to go along with it, he is a batsman who can take the game away from the opposition fairly quickly. In addition to that, Rishabh Pant is a brutal hitter against spinners and has recorded a strike rate 157.5 against spin bowlers since as far back as 2015.

However, tonight he will come up against arguably the greatest spin bowler in IPL history in the form of KKR’s star performer Sunil Narine. Will he go for it from the outset and try to throw him off his lengths? Or will he bide his time and deny him the wicket? However, for a batsman who has been successful against spin, it is unlikely that he will take a backward step against the Trinidadian and that is what makes it a match-defining battle. Whoever comes out on top will almost certainly give his team a great chance of victory in tonight’s game.