IPL 2017, RPS vs KKR: Face off

Rising Pune Supergiant host Kolkata Knight Riders at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. The Kolkata franchise are second in the standings while Pune have put aside their poor start to the season to jump to fourth.

Having beaten Mumbai in their last encounter, Pune would go in confidently to face Kolkata at home. The Gambhir-led side bowled out Bangalore for the lowest ever IPL total and are not short on confidence themselves.

Extra Cover: IPL 2017, RPS vs KKR: 5 winning factors

Both teams would look to continue their winning momentum in Pune and this makes it an enthralling contest to look forward to. Here, we take a look at the stats of their probable eleven and compare them purely on the basis of the IPL stats listed below.

Rising Pune Supergiant	Kolkata Knight Riders	Who’s Better
Ajinkya Rahane	Gautam Gambhir	Even-Stevens
Runs-2834, Avg-34.14, SR-121.27	Runs-3878, Avg-31.27,SR-124.94
Rahul Tripathi	Sunil Narine	KKR
Runs-178, Avg-35.6, SR-152.14	Runs-168, Avg-14, SR-142.37 Wkts-89, Avg-19.92, Eco- 6.2
Steven Smith	Manish Pandey	RPS
Runs-1455, Avg-37.31, SR-135.73	Runs-2079, Avg-28.48, SR-120.87
MS Dhoni	Robin Uthappa	Even-Stevens
Runs-3400, Avg-38.64, SR-137.71	Runs-3575, Avg-29.55, SR-129.91
Manoj Tiwary	Suryakumar Yadav	RPS
Runs-1461, Avg-29.83, SR-116.78	Runs-547, Avg-20.26, SR-129.01
Ben Stokes	Yusuf Pathan	KKR
Runs-127, Avg-18.14, SR-136.56 Wkts-6, Avg-30.83, Eco-7.4	Runs-2866, Avg-30.82, SR-146.37 Wkts-41, Avg-33.39, Eco-7.35
Dan Christian	Colin de Grandhomme	RPS
Runs-367, Avg-18.35, SR- 118.39 Wkts-21, Avg-34, Eco-7.96	Runs-1, Avg-0.33, SR-16.67 Wkts-4, Avg-7.75, Eco-6.64
Washington Sundar	Chris Woakes	KKR
Wkts-1, Avg-45, Eco-6 .43	Runs-31, Avg-10.33, SR-88.57 Wkts-10, Avg-20.5, Eco-9.32
Shardul Thakur	Umesh Yadav	KKR
Wkts-5, Avg-33.2, Eco-9.76	Wkts-81, Avg-30.15, Eco-8.43
Jaydev Unadkat	Nathan Coulter-Nile	KKR
Wkts-37, Avg-29.54, Eco-8.44	Wkts-29, Avg-19.83, Eco-7.58
Imran Tahir	Kuldeep Yadav	RPS
Wkts-39, Avg-21.51, Eco-8.45	Wkts-12, Avg-20.42, Eco-7.9

RPS 4 - 5 KKR

While Kolkata seem to have the edge from the analysis based on stats, Pune's recent form suggests that they are no pushovers. While much of Kolkata's success has come at home, it remains to be seen how effective their new pace attack is outside the relaid pitch in Eden.