Punjab vs Kolkata: Match Preview, Probable Lineups, Playerzpot XI, Prediction & Match details
Its Gayle vs Russell tonight. The focus will be on the two West Indians, who will come out on top? Two sides who seemed very comfortable at the start of the campaign find themselves in a tricky situation. Kolkata had a dream start winning difficult games powered by Russell blitz & Punjab won 3 out of the first 4 games. What followed was pandamonium, heavy defeats, matches thrown from winning positions which resulted in losing streaks. Kolkata’s over dependence on Russell was exposed & Punjab’s inconsistency came to the fore. Both need to win their remaining two games with a good margin & still hope other results go their way. Tonight’s game is a virtual quarter final, as one of them will find themselves out of the race.
Punjab
How Punjab fare in this game will depend a lot on how their star openers fare. KL Rahul & Chris Gayle need to get going, as the team’s middle order woes continue. Sam Curran was seen practising batting in the nets which means he may replace Miller in the team. Mujeeb was expensive in the game against Hyderabad & might be replaced by Andrew Tye who practised as well. Punjab have been strong at home & they will need to fire on all cylinders to win this crucial game.
Probable Lineup – KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Sam Curran, Simran Singh (W), Ravichandran Ashwin (C), Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Andrew Tye
Kolkata
The team management would have been delighted to see Shubman Gill & Chris Lynn contributing with the bat to support Andre Russell against Mumbai. Allthough their bowling was once again exposed as they conceded close to 200 runs with Hardik Pandya almost scoring a century. Seniors like Sunil Narine & Piyush Chawla need to take some responsibility. Kolkata have been poor on the road but its a do or die situation for them.
Probable Lineup – Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (W/C), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Sandeep Warrier, Harry Gurney
Playerzpot XI
SportsGuru Prediction
Punjab have won 4 out of the 5 games they have played at Mohali while Kolkata have won just 2 on the road. We are going with a Punjab win for this one.
Match Details
Friday 03 May (8pm IST) at IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali
Though it rained yesterday, clear weather is expected today with a high temperature.
