Kolkata Knight Riders vs Punjab Kings Predictions: Both teams are in the bottom half of the table

Playing in their eleventh game of the season Kolkata Knight Riders will welcome Punjab Kings in the 53rd game of the season at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on 8th May. Both teams are in the bottom half of the table. Who will win this game?

Kolkata, despite exceeding pre-tournament expectations, has struggled to maintain consistency lately, losing three out of their last five matches. Although they did manage to win against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their previous match, it's too early to determine if they are in contention for their third IPL title. Even though the win silenced some of their critics, they need to put in more effort to convince their fans that they have the capability to become champions once again.

The top order of KKR has been their Achilles' heel, with their openers Jason Roy and Rahmanullah Gurbaz delivering average performances, and the team hasn't won their last three home matches. It's expected that the batting order and spin group will remain the same, but it's uncertain who among Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, and Umesh Yadav will start as Indian seamers.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy

Nathan Ellis has been displaying his versatile wicket-taking abilities throughout the tournament, taking wickets in all phases of the game, including power-plays, middle overs, and death overs, totaling three wickets in each phase this season. He has an impressive powerplay economy of 6.8 in six innings, making him a strong contender to start over Rabada. Nevertheless, Punjab Kings may consider playing Rabada due to his added pace, which could create trouble for KKR's Indian batsmen, as well as Russell and Sunil Narine with his short balls. Furthermore, replacing Matthew Short with Sikandar Raza may provide Kings with a valuable batting and spin option. Although choosing between Ellis and Rabada will be challenging, we anticipate Punjab Kings bringing in Raza for Short.

The Kings' middle order, led by Liam Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma, can be highly destructive at Eden Gardens, posing a similar threat to KKR's Rana, Rinku Singh, and Andre Russell. However, they must be careful of the challenge presented by Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma. If the Kings can navigate these obstacles effectively, they will likely be the favorites to win the match despite their inconsistent performance. It's worth noting that the Kings haven't won consecutive games since their first two matches of the season, which may be on their minds.

Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan (c), Matthew Short, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sam Curran, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rishi Dhawan, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh

The pitch at Kolkata this season has been a delight for batsmen, despite historically being favourable for quick bowlers. With the presence of dew in the second half of the match, the advantage further shifts in favour of the batters. The pitch lacks turn, making it batting-friendly and posing little threat from spin. Thus, no total is deemed safe, and it is predicted that a score of 200 or more will be considered the par score for this match. In the four IPL 2023 games played at this venue, the average first-innings winning total has been 222. A minimum of 210 runs batting first will be a safe total. Anything below that will provide an advantage to the team chasing. We expect KKR to win at their home.