After two contrasting finishes in the first two matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns in a clash of two former champions on Sunday. The 14th season of the world's premier T20 cricket league started with Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beating Rohit Sharma's defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in a last-ball thriller. In the second math, last season's finalists, Delhi Capitals thumped three-time champions Chennai Super Kings. And the third match will witness two formidable sides, featuring some of the best operators in the shortest format of the game.
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Eoin Morgan, one of the best in business in the white-ball format, took charge of an ordinary-looking KKR under Dinesh Karthik midway into the last season held in the UAE. Running against time, the Morgan-led side finished on the same points as SRH and RCB but the two teams advanced on better run-rate as KKR missed the playoffs for the second time in succession.
In his first stint as full-time captain, all eyes would be on the ODI World Cup-winning English skipper who will look to transform the misfiring army of cricketers and bring back the glorious days of two-time IPL champions. And he has got a brilliant team, featuring the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Andre Russell, Shubman Gill, Pat Cummins, etc.
Up against them are one of the more consistent sides in IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad. Last season, they lost to Delhi Capitals in the Qualifier 2 last year. But this season, the David Warner-led outfit will hope to do better. And they have the manpower.
The return of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who played just four games in last year's IPL in the UAE due to a hip injury, will bolster the team. Fresh from his fine form during the white-ball leg of the England series at home, the senior India pacer will spearhead their attack with yorker specialist T Natrajan by his side. Then, there is Afghan star spinner Rashid Khan.
Skipper Warner himself will lead the batting charge, with the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey forming a solid top four.
Match and telecast details:
Match: Third match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders.
Date: April 11 (Sunday), 2021
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
TV Channels: Star Sports Network
Live Streaming: Disney+ Hotstar
Likely XIs:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan.
Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Kane Williamson, Virat Singh, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Wriddhiman Saha, Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Sreevats Goswami, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Kedar Jadhav, J Suchit, Jason Holder, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddharth Kaul, Basil Thampi, Shahbaz Nadeem and Mujeeb ur Rahman.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Lockie Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Harbhajan Singh, Karun Nair, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer and Pawan Negi.
