IPL 2018, KKR v RR: 5 players battles to look forward to

#1 Sunil Narine v Jos Buttler

Sunil Narine

Ever since RR decided to play Jos Buttler at the opener’s slot 5 games ago, he has scored a half-century in each game and his scores in the last three games (82, 95*, 94*) were epic knocks that helped the team in winning crucial games. He has zoomed to the top of the RR run-scoring charts with an aggregate of 509 runs and has recorded an average of 56.55, to go along with a strike rate of 153.77.

He is absolutely crucial to the RR batting effort and without a doubt, the most important wicket as far as KKR are concerned. If he gets going yet again, then there is every chance of RR walking away with the game. KKR’s best chance of stopping the Englishman is by introducing Sunil Narine straightaway against him. The West Indian has an excellent record against him and in the eight T20 games that he has played against him, Narine has only given away 28 runs to Buttler in a total of 29 deliveries. In those games, he dismissed him twice and it is that record that suggests that in tonight’s game, the Buttler v Narine battle could well prove to be the match-defining one.