Today's IPL Match: Sunrisers Hyderabad Vs Kolkata Knight Riders Match Preview: Pitch Report & Weather Forecast of SRH vs KKR, Match 8

The eighth match of this IPL season will see Kolkata Knight Riders taking on the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the latter’s home ground on Saturday. It’s the first of the two games scheduled for what promises to be a “Super Saturday”. But records are a thing of the past and the Sunrisers would love to change that by registering their first win of the tournament. KKR on the other hand, will be seething from their loss to the Mumbai Indians on Wednesday. Being a day game with dew not having any role to play, the spinners of both teams must be itching to have a go at the batters. Kolkata Knight Riders start favourites though because they possess some wonderful tweakers and most importantly, they have the batsmen who can tackle spin comfortably.

Venue: Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad

Match Time: 4 PM IST

The Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, like all stadiums in India, is good for batting and that should be good news for both the batting heavy sides. Sunrisers, however, do not have a particularly impressive record against KKR having won just 2 out of the 6 games played before.

Pitch report: Should be a batting beauty and big scores will be expected. Spinners might come into play later in the innings.

Weather: Will be extremely hot with a maximum temperature of 41°C. No chances of rain. Players will surely feel the heat since this is a day game.

KKR to make some changes?

Kolkata would have been disappointed with the way their game against Mumbai turned out in the end. They had a great start with the bat with both Gambhir and Manish Pandey registering 50s but their batting just fell away in the end because the other batsmen were unable to provide the final push in the slog overs. Also, their bowlers had an off day but that’s generally the case for bowlers who run into an on song Rohit Sharma at Eden Gardens. Ask the Sri Lankan bowlers that!

Some changes could be expected from the Knight Riders’ end. Sunil Narine might come in place of Brad Hogg, after Hogg had a pretty ordinary game against Mumbai. Also, we might see Shakib Al Hasan replacing Colin Munro since Shakib provides an excellent all-round option. Also the fact that Munro has been wasted in the middle order might convince Gambhir to bring in Shakib.

There could also be a case for Umesh Yadav and we might see him replacing one of the Indian spinners. This way, KKR would have the luxury of three spinners in Narine, Chawla and Shakib and three quick bowlers in Umesh, Hastings and Russell.

Likely KKR Eleven:

1. Robin Uthappa(wk) 2. Gautam Gambhir(C) 3. Manish Pandey 4. Yusuf Pathan 5. Shakib Al Hasan 6. Suryakumar Yadav 7. Andre Russell 8. John Hastings 9. Piyush Chawla 10. Umesh Yadav/Kuldeep Yadav 11. Sunil Narine

Hyderabad sweat over injuries and form of some key players

From Sunriser’s perspective, the idea should be to stay calm. They were taken apart by two legendary batsmen in the last game and there is no real shame in that. The bowlers must have learnt a great deal from the last game and the Sunrisers must look ahead. The bowling form of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Karn Sharma is a worry but Hyderabad must persist with them. Mustafizur Rahman though, was exceptional the other night with his cutters bringing that “fizz” to the bowling line up.

Hyderabad might make some changes too. A forced change would be bringing in Barinder Sran, in place of the injured Ashish Nehra. Nehra has joined Yuvraj Singh to the injury list and that’s just horrible news for Hyderabad. Also, we might see Kane Williamson replacing Moises Henriques in the batting department. This move should definitely bring in some much-needed stability and flair to the batting order.

Yes, you can’t deny that Sunrisers have their share of worries in the batting department. There is an overdependence on their skipper David Warner and the iffy form of Shikhar Dhawan is hurting them really badly. Dhawan has been susceptible to off spin lately and this might influence Gambhir to open the bowling with Narine.

They would also want the likes of Deepak Hooda and Naman Ojha to settle down quickly and start scoring some vital runs in the middle. Eoin Morgan, another out of form player, has to play a massive role in the middle. His crucial blows could make a difference in the end and he would hope he gets his touch back soon.

Likely SRH Eleven:

1. David Warner(C) 2. Shikhar Dhawan 3. Kane Williamson 4. Eoin Morgan 5. Deepak Hooda 6. Naman Ojha(wk) 7. Ashish Reddy 8. Karn Sharma 9. Bhuvneshwar Kumar 10. Mustafizur Rahman 11. Barinder Sran