IPL 2017, Preview, RPS Vs KKR: Rejuvenated Pune Take On Formidable Kolkata

Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), who have regained momentum in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with three consecutive wins, will be hoping to keep this impetus alive when they meet ever-formidable Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in a battle for a clamber towards the top of the table. The Pune outfit would be really boosted with the win over Mumbai Indians (MI) on Monday, while KKR are celebrating the absolute destruction of Royal Challengers Bangalore.

RPS made the most of the best display so far in IPL 10 from Ben Stokes, combined with a steady last over from Jaydev Unadkat, to pull off a three-run win over MI, which would have done their confidence a world of good.

Kolkata, with Gautam Gambhir at the helm, have been good so far, though they lost at least one match they should not have, to MI.

Nevertheless, they are in fine fettle and the destruction of the daunting RCB batting must have made them feel even better.

IPL 10 is coming towards the business end, and the teams which look good are beginning to distance themselves from the latter four. RPS and KKR look like two teams than can be backed to move forward.

Squads (from):

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

Rising Pune Supergiant: Steve Smith (Capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ashok Dinda, Faf du Plessis, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Deepak Chahar, Rahul Chahar, Dan Christian, Lockie Ferguson, Imran Tahir, Jaskaran Singh, Usman Khawaja, Saurabh Kumar, Ben Stokes, Washington Sundar, Milind Tandon, Manoj Tiwary, Adam Zampa, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishwar Pandey, Rahul Tripathi, Shardul Thakur.