Kolkata and Rajasthan face off each other in the virtual knockout match in the second fixture at Sunday’s doubleheader.
To qualify for the Indian T20 League Playoffs 2020, both sides would aim to earn two points. Rajasthan are fresh off, two back-to-back convincing chases while Kolkata suffered a defeat against Chennai in a last-ball thriller.
Match Timings: Nov 01, 7:30 PM
Team Preview
Kolkata can blame themselves for the blunders in the second half. After a positive start, Kolkata failed to draw consistency. They are a team of individuals and their poor approach on the field has put them in the worst scenario. Morgan’s bowling changes in death-overs created a scene and Chennai snatched the victory from the jaws of the defeat. Kolkata need to win their final game to stay in the playoffs contention. The win is not enough as they have to rely on other results. If Punjab wins, Kolkata would have to play an extra-ordinary game to boost their NRR. They also have to wait for Hyderabad’s performance. If Mumbai lost their final game, Hyderabad will qualify on the basis of good NRR.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan are a threatening side after dominating chases against Mumbai and Punjab. Ben Stokes is back in the form and Sanju Samson is also scoring runs. In the last two matches, Rajasthan fixed their batting issues. The equation is similar to Rajasthan and they also have to rely on Punjab and Hyderabad’s last matches. They can improve their Net-Run-Rate with Punjab but upstaging Hyderabad will not be an easy task. The toss will be crucial. In this must-win game, both sides would try to prefer chasing. The current points table shows that Rajasthan needs to win their last game by at least 60 runs and Kolkata requires an 80-runs victory to upstage Punjab from the 4th spot. In the T20 format, these numbers cannot be achieved. The current unit of Rajasthan is slightly ahead of Kolkata and if the toss goes in their favor, Rajasthan can go through.
Pitch Report
Dubai’s surface has good amount of spin and in night games, batsmen can control the game while chasing. This surface don’t produce enough dew but quality spin would surely trouble batsmen in middle-overs. 180 is a winning total on this pitch.
Possible Lineups
Kolkata
Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Eoin Morgan (c), Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Varun Chakravarthy
Rajasthan
Robin Uthappa, Ben Stokes, Steven Smith (c), Sanju Samson (wk), Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Kartik Tyagi
Key Players
Kolkata
Nitish Rana
This season – M: 13, Runs: 352, Avg: 35
Varun Chakravarthy
This season – M: 12, Wickets: 15, Avg: 22.40
Rajasthan
Ben Stokes
This season – M: 7, Runs: 267, Avg: 44.50
Sanju Samson
This season – M: 13, Runs: 374, Avg: 31.16
