Venue: Brabourne Stadium, Navi Mumbai
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Average score at venue (1st inns): 194
Win percentage while batting first: 40%
Pitch conditions:
- The pitch at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai remains an excellent batting track with support to both pacers and spinners.
- The teams competing in the Match No 25 here on Friday night will aim for big scores as batsmen will enjoy their time out in the middle.
- Fast bowlers have a wicket-share of 60.94% compared to the spinners’ 39.06%.
Weather prediction:
It will be a bright and clear day on Friday in Mumbai with high humidity levels of more than 70% during the match hours in the evening, with the mercury hitting a high of 30ºC in the daytime.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD (overall):
Matches played: 21
Hyderabad won: 7
Kolkata won: 14
No result: -
Top 3 players from Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Washington Sundar
Top 3 players from Kolkata: Shreyas Iyer, Andre Rusell, Sunil Narine
Top picks for H2H/WTA contest (top 5 players each):
Top 5 players from Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Rahul Tripathi
Top 5 players from Kolkata: Shreyas Iyer, Andre Rusell, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana
Q & A:
Fantasy tips and tricks: Should I pick more bowlers, batsmen or all-rounders?
The surface at the Brabourne Stadium has remained conducive for batting and even though there has been a decline in big scores being put up by teams on the other venues of the ongoing Indian T20 Cricket League, this grand old venue will have more favour to the batsmen. In the last match played here, Delhi raked up 215/5 and in their reply, Kolkata stroked their way to 171. It will be important to have more batsmen and wily bowlers such as Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy in the fantasy cricket playing XI for this match.
Fantasy tips: From which team should I pick more players in my XI? Which team is stronger?
Even though they were crushed in their previous match by Delhi, the Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata side are the favourites for this clash. They have recorded 3 wins from 5 matches, have an impressive batting line-up and their bowling attack has a lot of variation. On the other hand, things have just started to fall in place for Hyderabad with two wins on the trot, but longevity and consistency are always a challenge for good teams and they are yet to prove themselves.
MORE INFORMATION: Hyderabad will face another stern challenge on Friday night in Mumbai at a venue where batsmen have made merry, as their bowling attack still has a lot left to prove. Kane Williamson has started to peak at the right moment for the 2016 winners, and they have a few bowlers who are starting to look consistent. On the other hand, Kolkata will look to bounce back to winning ways having lost their last contest against Delhi in a high-scoring thriller here over the last weekend.
PLAYERS’ FORM: The much-touted Abhishek Sharma has proved his mettle with two strong partnerships for Hyderabad with Kane Williamson at the top, providing his side the early advantage. Kane Williamson’s return to form has been a boon for Hyderabad, who also have the dependable Rahul Tripathi in the middle-order. On the other hand, Kolkata will expect consistency from their top order batsmen Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer, while Ajinkya Rahane’s lack of runs will be a cause of concern.
Changes in squad (if any): NO
LIKELY XIs:
HYDERABAD: Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (c), Rahul Tripathi, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Aiden Markram, Shashank Singh, Washington Sundar, Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik.
KOLKATA: Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c),Sam Billings (wk), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine, Rasikh Salam, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
FANTASY XI: Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (vc), Nitish Rana, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Washington Sundar, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav/Varun Chakravarthy.
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Kolkata wary of resurgent Hyderabad in clash at Brabourne
Kolkata will be wary of a resurgent Hyderabad team when the two sides face-off in the Match No 25 of the ongoing Indian T20 Cricket League 2022, to be played at the iconic Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Kolkata will enter the contest drawing confidence from their overall record of 14 wins from 21 matches against Hyderabad, which also includes 3 wins and a tied game in their last 5 meetings.
The Shreyas Iyer-led team is certainly superior to the Hyderabad side for they have had a better campaign, winning 3 out of 5 matches played so far. Kolkata are currently placed second in the points table for the Indian T20 Cricket League with an impressive Net Run Rate of 0.446.
And even if Hyderabad continue with their resurgence and get the better of Kolkata, they will have an identical tally of 6 points but the NRR will keep the Kane Williamson-led team in the lower half of the points table, since their NRR is at a poor -0.501 at the moment.
But given the kind of cricket Hyderabad have played in their last two matches, including identical 8-wicket wins over Chennai and Gujarat, Kane Williamson and his men will feel they are ready for bigger challenges on the road ahead.
While Kane Williamson’s scores have doubled with each passing game — 2, 16, 32 and 57 — his opening partner and the young Punjab all-rounder Abhishek Sharma has also shown tremendous improvement in his game. With scores of 9, 13, 75 and 42, the left-handed Hyderabad opener has shown his form and he will be one of the important players for the clash on Friday.
Rahul Tripathi is another important player for Hyderabad whereas the team will expect the likes of Washington Sundar and T Natarajan to carry on the good work with the ball. The senior India and Hyderabad bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar took a couple of wickets against Gujarat in their last match — including the key wicket of Shubman Gill which put his team right on top.
Kolkata will be hurt after their 44-run defeat at the hands of Delhi in their last match at this venue. Kolkata failed to contain the Delhi batsmen who announced their intentions right from the word go that they were looking at a total in excess of 200. Pat Cummins and Andre Russell were hammered all over the park, and only Sunil Narine could salvage some pride for the two-time title winners.
Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana were back among runs for Kolkata against Delhi, and the team will expect both these batsmen, along with their wicketkeeper-batsman Sam Billings, to get more runs than they have got on individual basis.
