The 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) kicked off on Friday night, and Match 3 will see a clash of two former champions as Kolkata Knight Riders take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
When the sides met here last year, SRH posted a mammoth 228/4 thanks to English opener Harry Brook's 55-ball 100 and a quickfire half-century from Aiden Markram. KKR lost by 23 runs, despite the best efforts of Nitish Rana (75) and Rinku Singh (58*).
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The focus in this matchup will be on the Australian duo of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. At this year's mini-auction, they became the first two players to secure IPL contracts worth over Rs 20 crore.
KKR vs SRH: Live Toss
The live toss for KKR vs SRH will take place at 7:00 pm IST on March 23.
KKR vs SRH: Predicted Lineups
Kolkata Knight Riders Predicted Playing XI:
Venkatesh Iyer, Phil Salt/Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer (c), Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Mitchell Starc.
Impact player: Suyash Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad Predicted Playing XI:
Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Washington Sundar, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande.
Impact player: Abdul Samad
KKR vs SRH: Prediction
During the auction, much of the focus was on SRH's collection of overseas players with the likes of Cummins, Head and Hasaranga all vying for a starting spot. This could lead to a couple of different team combinations, but their Indian bowling core and top-order should remain relatively stable.
If the pitch at Eden Gardens assists spin, KKR will be massive favourites as their three-pronged attack of Sunil Narine, CV Varun and Suyash Sharma could run riot. With Andre Russell also looking in good shape and solid players of spin in Nitish Rana and Shreyas Iyer, they have a formidable side. Expect a closely-fought match.
KKR vs SRH: Betting odds
SRH are slight favourites to win the match according to Betting Odds via Dafabet.
| Team | Odds |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 2.00 |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | 1.90 |
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