IPL 2019: Sourav Ganguly In Spotlight As KKR Host Delhi Capitals At Eden Gardens

Sourav Ganguly might come as a visitor at his home ground Eden Gardens when his team Delhi Capitals take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 match on Friday. Cricket Association of Bengal president Sourav Ganguly is currently acting as adviser for Delhi Capitals. The equation has drawn charges of conflict-of-interest against the former India captain with a few insiders at the state board claiming that its president Sourav Ganguly may have a say in the Eden wicket.

"You will know about the nature of the wicket on the day of the match. Whatever it is, whichever team plays well will win, it's simple," Ganguly has said while responding on the allegations, even as the Eden Gardens is set to be divided in loyalty.

Meanwhile, swashbuckling Andre Russell's big-hitting prowess will be pitted against Kagiso Rabada's inch-perfect yorkers for the second time in IPL 2019.

Second in the IPL table with eight points from six matches, KKR's season so far has been a Russell show with the Jamaican amassing 257 runs from five innings, out of which 150 have come in sixes alone.

His average has been 128.50 while the strike rate is a mind-boggling 212.39, something that has left the opposition clueless on how to stop him.

MS Dhoni did it with perfect execution by stranding Dre-Russ (as Russell is known to KKR fans) with his spin-heavy attack en route to handing KKR a crushing seven-wicket defeat in Chennai in their last match.

KKR's second defeat this season has been at the hands of Delhi Capitals in a dramatic Super Over finish at Kotla with Rabada winning the battle against Russell.

Tasked to defend 11 runs in the Super Over, Rabada was smashed for a four by Russell in the first ball, but returned strongly to uproot the middle stump with an inch-perfect yorker, something Ganguly has termed as the "ball of the tournament".

While KKR will look to avenge their first leg defeat, Delhi, who have six points from as many matches, will be looking for their fourth win of the league to return to top-five.

Teams (From):

Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (capt/wk), Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Nikhil Naik, Joe Denly, Shrikant Mundhe, Nitish Rana, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Lockie Ferguson, Harry Gurney, KC Cariappa, Yarra Prithviraj

Delhi Capitals: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant(wk), Colin Ingram, Keemo Paul, Axar Patel, Rahul Tewatia, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma, Hanuma Vihari, Ankush Bains, Harshal Patel, Manjot Kalra, Chris Morris, Sherfane Rutherford, Jalaj Saxena, Sandeep Lamichhane, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nathu Singh, Bandaru Ayyappa, Colin Munro

Match starts at 8pm IST.

(With PTI inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

Kolkata Knight Riders Delhi Capitals Sourav Ganguly Shreyas Iyer Dinesh Karthik IPL 2019 Cricket Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Capitals, Match 26