Ahmedabad: Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first match of the IPL 2024 play-off stage at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The winner of today’s clash will earn a ticket to the IPL 2024 final at Chepauk, while the loser will get a chance to redeem themselves in Qualifier 2 on May 24.
KKR topped the IPL points table at the end of the league phase with 9 wins from their 14 matches. The Shreyas Iyer-led franchise had 20 points to their name with an impressive net run rate of +1.428.
However, KKR will be without the services of opener Phil Salt, who has flown back to England to prepare for the upcoming T20 series against Pakistan. The Kolkata franchise will also be battling rust, having not played a match in the last 10 days or so.
SRH on the other hand, will go into the playoffs on the back of a thumping 4-wicket win over Punjab Kings in their last encounter. The Pat Cummins-led franchise has won 8 of their 14 league matches and sits 2nd on the points table with 17 points and a net run rate of +0.414.
In the 26 matches these two teams have played so far in the IPL, KKR have won 16 of these encounters while SRH have won 9 and one match has been drawn. KKR also have the edge in the playoffs, with the Shreyas Iyer-led franchise having won 2 of the 3 matches against SRH so far.
According to Google’s win predictor, both teams have almost equal chances of winning the Qualifier 1 clash. However, SRH are slightly ahead of KKR at this stage with a 51% chance of winning the clash.