IPL 2025: Kolkata Knight Riders brace for Rajasthan Royals storm

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Kolkata Knight Riders, fresh off a win, face a double challenge at Eden Gardens: unpredictable nor’westers and a fearless Rajasthan Royals side. KKR, needing to win their remaining matches to qualify, hopes captain Ajinkya Rahane recovers in time. The Royals’ young batsman Vaibhav Suryavanshi poses a significant threat, eager to replicate his earlier success against Gujarat Titans.

Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL campaign sputtered back to life with the win against Delhi Capitals, but now faces another threat at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday.

Twin threats, in fact, given that the city has been lashed by norwesters over the past few days. Although short and sharp, these storms are strong enough to blow a match away, as KKR experienced against Punjab Kings the other night.

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The second threat is their opponents Rajasthan Royals, who are already out of the tournament and could well come into the game with a devil-may-care attitude. With nine points from 10 matches so far, KKR need to win their remaining four league games to give themselves a chance of making it to the qualifiers.

A loss on Sunday will mathematically still keep them in contention, although a lot of permutations will have to go in their favour.

“Destiny is in our own hands,” is how KKR batter Rovman Powell put it. “We can’t get too desperate. We have to trust the process.” Powell informed that the team’s medics are working on skipper Ajinkya Rahane’s injured hand, hoping to get him fit for Sunday’s contest.

The first threat has a silver lining though, given that the norwesters are timing their arrival well after dusk. Being a day-night match, most of it could be over before the storm strikes, if at all. A few overs lost won’t really affect the outcome, just that the teams will have to strategise a bit differently. But then, the weather is unpredictable and KKR have to be prepared for any change in its schedule.

A Royals charge is a greater threat, particularly with their young storm generator Vaibhav Suryavanshi eager to prove that the whirlwind ton against Gujarat Titans was no flash in the pan. In fact, if Suryavanshi gets going, he can trigger a tsunami! It will be interesting to see how this teen prodigy handles spinners like Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine.

Whichever way you look at it, a storm is on Eden’s menu for Sunday.

Likely XII:

KKR: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy

RR: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Shubham Dubey, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag (captain), Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Jofra Archer, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya

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