Find out team news, TV and streaming information, odds, head-to-head record, weather forecast and much, much more ahead of the 13th game of the new Indian Premier League season
Kolkata Knight Riders take on Chennai Super Kings in the 14th match of the 2021 IPL.
The game is scheduled for 7.30pm IST (3pm BST) on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.
Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium is hosting the game.
Chennai Super Kings are showing signs that a recovery is on the way after a disappointing 2020. After being comprehensively beaten by Delhi Capitals in their opener, they have produced two excellent performances - one in the chase and one defending a total - to beat Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals.
KKR have been unimpressive in the chase. They fell 10 short of a medicore 153 target against Mumbai Indians, despite batting out their 20 overs and having three wickets to spare. Against Royal Challengers Bangalore, their pursuit of 205 fell apart competely and they ended up 38 short from their full allocation and still with batsmen left in the hutch.
Their solitary win, against the competition's poorest side to date - Sunrisers Hyderabad, came after they batted first and put 187 for 6 on the board.
Dafabet make Chennai Super Kings the hot favourites for this one - they are 3/4 for the win.
If you fancy a flutter on Kolkata Knights, they are available at 21/20.
The bookies are much less in favour of CSK when it comes to total match sixes. With Andre Russell down the order, and Nitish Rana in fine form at the top, KKR are 17/20 for most sixes despite being heavy underdogs for the match overall. CSK - with 22 sixes in the tournament compared to KKR's 20 - might just deliver value on this one.
Backing Nitish Rana to keep firing? He's 14/5 to top score for KKR. For CSK, Faf du Plessis is 13/5 but watch out for Moeen Ali at 3/1, the England allrounder appears to be enjoying his cricket with CSK after a difficult start to 2021.
It's just about time for KKR's big guns to fire.
Eoin Morgan, Shakib al Hasan and Andre Russell have had relatively tame tournaments with the bat. The trio have 121 runs between then from nine innings combined, with none of the three striking at better than 115. Something will have to give soon, though, and that could be against CSK.
Rana, who is not currently ranked in the men's T20 Player Index, has 34 more runs that his three teammates combined and has been the pivot in KKR's batting cause with two fifties so far.
CSK have generally been more impressive with the ball than the bat so far in 2021. Prior to the Delhi-Mumbai game on Tuesday, they had three of the top nine bowlers in terms of economy in this season's competition: Moeen (6.33), Ravindra Jadeja (6.3) and Sam Curran (6.66). KKR's top equivalent, Pat Cummins, has a season economy of 7.33 to date.
CSK will have to decide how much longer to give Ruturaj Gaikwad at the top of the order. Robin Uthappa offers an alternative. Gaikwad has managed just 20 runs from 37 deliveries across his three innings this season.
Given KKR's meagre form, it will be interesting to see when Morgan decides to give Kulkeep Yadav a go, especially given Harbhajan Singh has yet to claim a wicket from his seven overs in three matches so far. Harbhajan has gone at nine runs per over in that time.
The two teams have played each other 23 times.
Kolkata Knight Riders wins: 8
Chennai Super Kings wins: 14
No result: 1
Another clear day is predicted in Mumbai, with temperatures expected to reach 35 degrees Celcius during the afternoon before dropping to 31 in time for the start of play. Rain will not be an issue.
No, this match will be played behind closed doors owing to the Covid-19 situation in India.
All signs point to a CSK win. There seems to be confidence in the camp, composure with the ball, and plenty of potential with the bat. One Andre Russell special and that could all change, but on track record these past three matches, the vote is with CSK.
IPL TEAM GUIDES
Sky Sports have the rights in the United Kingdom.
You can aso stream the tournament using the Disney+ Hotstar digital platform, though the matches are only available for VIP or Premium subscribers.
Star Sports have the television rights in India.
Streaming service YuppTV have acquired digital streaming rights in a host of markets, including Australia, continental Europe, Malaysia, Southeast Asia with the exception of Singapore, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, Central Asia, and Central and South America.
In the USA, the games will be broadcast on Willow TV and the Willow TV website. Fox Sports have the broadcasting rights in Australia, while Supersport will televise the games in South Africa. In the Caribbean, Flow TV have the rights.
The following broadcasters owning the rights for their respective regions:
Bangladesh: Channel 9
Afghanistan: Lemar TV
Malaysia: Measat
MENA/UAE: BeIN Sport
Hong Kong: Now TV
Singapore: SingTel
New Zealand: Sky Sport
Papua New Guinea: EMTV
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Eoin Morgan, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Pawan Negi, Tim Seifert, Shakib al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer
Chennai Super Kings: Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Narayan Jagadeesabn, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif, Karn Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Imran Tahir, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, K Gowtham, Cheteshwar Pujara, M.Harisankar Reddy, K.Bhagath Varma, C Hari Nishaanth, R Sai Kishore, Jason Behrendorff
CSK: Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar.
KKR: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Shakib Al Hasan, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna.
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