IPL Qualifier 1: Salt-less KKR take on Hyderabad in power-hitting slugfest

Highflying Kolkata Knight Riders and an unpredictable Sunrisers Hyderabad teams that have built their IPL 2024 campaign on powerhitting will look to outmuscle each other in IPL 2024 Qualifier 1 on TuesdayIf KKR were the first team to make IPL playoffs this year SRH gave themselves a huge boost by inflicting a fourwicket loss on Punjab Kings on Sunday to eventually finish second with 17 points ahead of Rajasthan RoyalsWhile the two top teams from the 70match league round have enjoyed some time off courtesy incessant rains during their respective clashes over last 10 days the lack of turnaround time to compete in a highintensity playoff game will also pose a unique challengeKKR and SRH will get only a days time to traverse thousands of kilometres and get here for the first half of the playoffs as they both featured on the final day of the league round on SundaySRH would feel they have hit their strides following a comprehensive win over PBKS and having also got recent gametime which isnt the case for KKR whose last complete game was on May 11Shreyas Iyers KKR had won four games on the trot before rains washed away their last two league games and the twotime winnersTabletoppers KKR 19 points will also have to fill in the huge void at the top with their secondhighest runscorer and wicketkeeper Phil Salt 435 runs leaving the camp for national duties with England ahead of the T20 World CupSalt had forged a devastating partnership with Sunil Narine 461 at the top and KKR were immensely benefited by their ultraaggressive approach with the bat backed up well by a potent middleorder even though skipper Iyer 287 has not had a major impact yetThe washed out contest against RR in particular robbed KKR of an opportunity to give expected replacement Rahmanullah Gurbaz a go at the top with Narine something that would have settled a few concerns certainlyAlso ReadOf course Rohit has a pointhellipdefinitely says Michael HoldingFor KKR the form of Nitish Rana adds more solidity to the middleorder while a fiery Andre Russell among the finishers promise them vital runsIn many ways SRH match KKRs firepower on paper and that is what adds more to the lure of this contestTravis Head and Abhishek Sharma have both got their runs at a strike rate exceeding 200 while inspiring their side to rewrite a few recordsAustralian southpaw Head has in many ways redefined aggressiveness with the bat while also remaining successful 533 runs with one century and four fiftiesHis fearlessness has also brought the best out of the young Indian batter Abhishek 467 who has clobbered an overall 41 sixes this IPL iquest 10 more than his overall tally of 31 in the previous six seasonsSRH have also managed to find answers to a couple of questions which were lingering on for a while At No 3 the 2016 winners have found a dependable option in Rahul Tripathi who can both accelerate as well as weather storms when bowlers are onsongAdditionally Heinrich Klaasen has rediscovered his form after a dip in the middle of the tournament With a crucial knock of 42 against PBKS Klaasen has signalled having found his mojo back which only makes SRH even more formidableAt Ahmedabad as seen in the World Cup final last year teams batting second have had more success winning four out of six completed games while only twice the team which batted first could defend successfullyAlso against the style of play for both these teams iquest to bury oppositions under mountains of runs iquest this venue has had only two scores of 200 or above in 12 innings which means the bowlers will also have their sayIf KKR have a battery of spinners to back their fast bowlers led by Mitchell Starc SRHs pace bowling attack led by skipper Pat Cummins has time and again produced unified efforts to make their markIn their only meet earlier this season back in late March KKR had pipped SRH by four runs in a highscoring gameIPL 2024 Qualifier 1 SquadsKolkata Knight Riders Shreyas Iyer c KS Bharat wk Rahmanullah Gurbaz wk Rinku Singh Angkrish Raghuvanshi Sherfane Rutherford Manish Pandey Andre Russell Nitish Rana Venkatesh Iyer Anukul Roy Ramandeep Singh Varun Chakravarthy Sunil Narine Vaibhav Arora Chetan Sakariya Harshit Rana Suyash Sharma Mitchell Starc Dushmantha Chameera Sakib Hussain Mujeeb Ur Rahman Allah GhazanfarSunrisers Hyderabad Abhishek Sharma Travis Head Heinrich Klaasen wk Aiden Markram Abdul Samad Nitish Reddy Shahbaz Ahmed Pat Cummins c Bhuvneshwar Kumar Jaydev Unadkat T Natarajan Mayank Markande Umran Malik Anmolpreet Singh Glenn Phillips wk Rahul Tripathi Washington Sundar Upendra Yadav wk Jhathavedh Subramanyan Sanvir Singh Vijayakanth Viyaskanth Fazalhaq Farooqi Marco Jansen Akash Maharaj Singh Mayank AgarwalWith agency inputs