Two attacking line-ups set for Sunday blockbuster
Two in-form teams - Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad - with strong all-round performances will play the second match on Sunday
The Preview by Vishal Dikshit
29-Apr-2017
Match facts
Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders
Hyderabad, April 30, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
Hyderabad, April 30, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)
Head to head
This season: Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 3 for 20, Yuvraj Singh struck two sixes in his innings with a strike rate of 162.50 but Sunrisers Hyderabad only managed 155 in pursuit of their 173-run target.
Overall: Kolkata Knight Riders hold a dominant 7-3 lead over Sunrisers
The likely XIs
Sunrisers Hyderabad 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Moises Henriques, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Deepak Hooda, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Siddarth Kaul
Kolkata Knight Riders 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Umesh Yadav
Should Narine open the bowling against Sunrisers?
0 votesYes, makes sense against two left-handers
No, keep him for the middle overs
Don't open but bowl at least an over in the Powerplay
Strategy punt
Sunil Narine could very well open the batting. No surprises there. Maybe Knight Riders should also consider opening the bowling with him, against two left-handed Sunrisers openers. While David Warner has scored a decent 67 runs off 50 balls against Narine, Shikhar Dhawan has only managed 31 runs off 30 balls. When Narine bowled one over to them in the Powerplay earlier in the season, he conceded seven runs, including three singles and two dots in the over.
Stats that matter
Vishal Dikshit is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo