It has taken the better part of seven weeks and more than 50 matches but knockout cricket finally begins in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday when the Kolkata Knight Riders host the Rajasthan Royals in the eliminator at Eden Gardens.
These two sides finished third and fourth respectively in the regular season but that counts for little now. It is all about this match. Win it and you take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday for a place in the final. Lose it and you are done for the season. Everything is on the line here.
Kolkata Knight Riders
This has not been the best of seasons for the Kolkata Knight Riders but they won’t care about that now. To be fair to them they did power home towards the end of the campaign when it looked like they could miss out on the playoffs and if they have three more wins hidden away they will regain their crown on Sunday.
There has been a real improvement in the Kolkata bowling in the second half of the season which is significant because it will be the bowlers who win matches from here on in. There has never been an issue with the power in their batting line up but at times they haven’t batted as a unit. That has changed in recent matches too and they are better for it.
Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals might be forgiven for thinking their name is on the trophy given how they made it to these playoffs. They won two of their last three matches to get to 14pts and then watched as Mumbai and Kings XI Punjab both lost their final games which would have denied them the last spot had any of them won.
With just seven wins Rajasthan have already ridden their luck in this competition and they might need to rise it again here as their record in Kolkata is poor and they have already lost twice to the Knight Riders this season. That said they were emphatic against Bangalore at the weekend and a repeat of that might be enough.
Team News
Kolkata Knight Riders may well go into this match unchanged from last time out unless of course they want to change their seam attack. Mitchell Johnson and Tom Curran are waiting if Javon Searles hasn’t done enough to be included.
Rajasthan Royals continue to be without Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes. That did not hamper them at the weekend but this is a different ball game. Heinrich Klaasen and Ben Laughlin are expected to stay in but if there is pace and bounce in the wicket it could be a day for D’Arcy Short.
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Betting
I’ll go with one main bet in this match and it comes in the form of the match runs rather than the match outcome. I would probably expect the Knight Riders to win this match but I’m on the Rajasthan Royals outright so I’m hoping they can pull off a bit of an upset.
The runs line for this one is 338.5 which I believe could be a tough on the high side. These two played out a match here last week where 140 was the first innings score and Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes were around for the Rajasthan Royals then. This is knockout cricket so runs on the board will mean a lot more here as we saw over the weekend and in truth if either side lose early wickets I’m not convinced there is too much in behind to recover. Both bowling attacks are very solid here so I’ll go under that line.
I’ll also have a punt on the top Rajasthan Royals batsman which is a market that is almost gagging to be shot at given the absence of the two Englishmen. I thought Heinrich Klaasen batted very well against Bangalore last time out and he was smashing Kuldeep Yadav everywhere in South Africa earlier in the year. This feels like a ground he should go very well at and if he can get in early enough to play himself in a top score at 8/1 is certainly not beyond him.
Tips
WON – Back Under 338.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back H.Klaasen Top Rajasthan Royals Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 9.00 with Coral
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