IPL 2017, Preview, Eliminator, SRH vs KKR: Hyderabad Loom As Threat To Shaky Kolkata

If Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) campaign in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Season 10 ends against the resurgent Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday, they will have no one else to blame. Sitting at the No.1 spot of the table almost till the end of the league stage, the KKR boys somehow managed to destroy their record and start an unstoppable downward slide. They lost four of the last five league matches, with the only win coming against the down and out Royal Challengers Bangalore. So when they take on SRH in the Eliminator, KKR will have many ghosts on their shoulders.

SRH, on the other hand, would be chuffed and keen for a battle. They were in a corner, like two other sides - Rising Pune Supergiant and Kings XI Punjab - to make a bid for the knockout stage and they really won't be complaining about being in the one-off match.

Two losses towards the crucial end of the league were repaired with two fine wins as the defending champions scored some vital points. If momentum is an issue, then SRH already have it up for KKR.

SRH also have the Orange and Purple Cap holders in their line-up while KKR have one of the best pace attacks in IPL 10. But overall, Hyderabad look way better, with both batsmen and bowlers working in tandem.

For KKR, only one of the two arms seems to work in any given match.

It will be the end of the road for one of the two sides, and as of now, SRH look upbeat. But in a 20-over match, all that can change in a flash.

Squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (capt), Darren Bravo, Trent Boult, Piyush Chawla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Colin de Grandhomme, Rishi Dhawan, Sayan Ghosh, Shakib-Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Ishank Jaggi, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Woakes, Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Ankit Rajpoot, Suryakumar Yadav, Robin Uthappa, Umesh Yadav.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (capt), Tanmay Agarwal, Ricky Bhui, Bipul Sharma, Ben Cutting, Shikhar Dhawan, Eklavya Dwivedi, Moises Henriques, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan, Siddarth Kaul, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Ben Laughlin, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammed Siraj, Mustafizur Rahman, Ashish Nehra, Naman Ojha, Rashid Khan, Vijay Shankar, Barinder Sran, Pravin Tambe, Kane Williamson, Yuvraj Singh.