KKR v SRH Prediction: Who will win today's IPL 2020 match

We’ve gone through a week of cricketing action in the 2020 Indian Premier League season, and yet, somehow, we find ourselves without a win for either Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) or the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

Game 8 of IPL 2020 sees the two winless teams go up against each other in a match that both sides will be desperate to win. SRH come into this match on the back of a 10-run defeat at the hands of Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Chasing 164, the Hyderabad franchise seemed to have the upper hand after Jonny Bairstow redeemed himself for the freak run out of David Warner by hitting a half-century in the company of Manish Pandey.

However, his wicket triggered a collapse for the Sunrisers, and they would be bowled out for 153, handing RCB a 10-run victory in their tournament opener.

The Knight Riders kicked off their campaign against defending champions Mumbai Indians in a game that could not have gone more wrong for the Kolkata franchise.

Set a target of 196, the Knight Riders’ chase never really took off. The team tottered to 146/9 after some late fireworks from the willow of the most expensive foreigner in the history of the league, Pat Cummins.

With the two sides now up against each other and needing a win to kickstart their campaign, one could expect plenty of fireworks in this KKR v SRH fixture.

IPL 2020: KKR v SRH match prediction

Pat Cummins will want to do a lot better than he did in his first game of the tournament

Given SRH’s explosive top-order, and the muscle in KKR’s middle-order, this game could well be won by the team whose batting fires. While Bairstow did get a half-century, the innings did not get the job done, and he, just like Warner and the KKR middle-order, will want to take their team to victory this time around.

A lot has been said about the purchase of Pat Cummins at the IPL 2020 Auction, and he will want to prove to the world that he is, in fact, worth his salt in the shortest format of the game. As for the rest of the bowling attack, Sunil Narine will want to add to his solitary wicket from the first game, while continuing to turn up the pressure on the opposition.

With Shivam Mavi impressing against the Mumbai Indians, it seems likely that Kamlesh Nagarkoti will have to continue to wait for his bow in the IPL. KKR’s bowling unit, especially Cummins, will want to make up for what was a difficult first game for them.

The SRH bowling attack didn’t get off to the best of starts in IPL 2020 either. While they did manage to fight back in the second half of the RCB innings, the bowlers were carted around by 20-year-old Devdutt Padikkal in the first ten overs, and they could bring some order back into the innings only after he was dismissed.

All eyes will be on the team’s Afghan leg-spinner, Rashid Khan, who went wicketless in the first game and will want to live up to his billing when KKR come around. The Sunrisers are also likely to include another Afghanistani all-rounder in the form of Mohammed Nabi in the line-up, given Mitchel Marsh’s injury. The extra spinner could do Hyderabad a world of good on the Sheikh Zayed Stadium’s sluggish tracks.

With the team losing the toss going on to win every match bar one in the tournament so far, losing the toss could make the difference in the KKR v SRH game as well. However, given the balance that Mohammed Nabi will bring to the team, and the batting quality that the team possess at the top of the order, this Hyderabad v Kolkata game could very well be won by Sunrisers Hyderabad.