Preview PBKS vs KKR IPL 2021, Match 19, April 26th, Narendra Modi Stadium. PBKS vs KKR head to head player stats and records. Team news and match predictions for PBKS vs KKR.
Key match stats PBKS vs KKR preview
Venue Stats – Narendra Modi Stadium
- Average first innings: 163
- Average first innings winning score: 171
- Average powerplay score: 47
- All-time win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 50% / 42%
Find full venue stats and records here
Team form PBKS vs KKR preview
- PBKS – WLLLW
- KKR – LLLLW
- Recent meetings: IPL 2020, KKR won by 2 runs, PBKS won by 8 wickets
PBKS vs KKR preview
PBKS vs KKR represents the first preview away from original 2 venues that have been used for the opening few weeks of the IPL 2021 tournament with this fixture set to take place at the newly built Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. It’s been some 6 years since an IPL fixture took place here and of course the stadium itself has undergone something of a transformation to become the largest capacity cricket venue in the world, although that will count for very little in Covid times.
PBKS come into this fixture riding the wave of a resounding victory over champions Mumbai Indians in their last match. Following a couple of heavy defeats earlier in the tournament that really was a much needed 2 points underlined by the fact that the PBKS bench celebrated the victory as if they’d won the tournament outright! I’m still not particularly convinced by the balance of the team they played and i’ll get stuck into the MI performance in that match in their next preview but from a PBKS perspective a win is a win and given the form of their opponents in this match they’ll hope to follow it up with another 2 points here to put themselves right in the mix for a 4th place finish.
We mentioned in our last preview of KKR just how slipshod the side had looked in all departments in their defeat against CSK and the match against RR at the weekend saw no improvement with poor fielding, lackadaisical batting and comedy run outs all thrown in for good measure against an opposition that had just been beaten by 10 wickets! All in all then, things aren’t looking good for the Knight Riders and I very much doubt that the short turn around in games or indeed the fact that they’ve had to travel during that 48 hour period will have done much to help them in their preparation for the game vs PBKS.
PBKS vs KKR head to head stats
PBKS bowling vs KKR batting
PBKS spent a rather large sum of money during the IPL auction on bringing in pace bowlers Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith to add some firepower up front but in the last match opted to open the bowling with Moises Henriques and Deepak Hooda who between them bowled 5 overs in the powerplay.
We saw in the T20i series at the Narendra Modi Stadium that it very much depends on the soil type in the pitch used as to whether the seamers will get any assistance early on so we wait to see whether either of the Aussie quicks might get a recall here. India in particular found success on this wicket by bowling off pace deliveries into the pitch – a tactic that Mohammed Shami performed well in PBKS’s previous game! Below is Shami’s head to head record vs KKR’s top scorer from their previous game Rahul Tripathi.
We’ll once again highlight the shocking form of KKR captain Eoin Morgan who was run out without facing a ball last time out. I guess you might say that things can only get better from there but in this game he comes up against Ravi Bisnoi who dismissed him twice in last year’s IPL.
Speaking of Bisnoi, it was great to see him finally get a game in IPL 2021 and following a very good effort by the young wrist spinner against MI we surely won’t see PBKS make the mistake of leaving him out again any time soon!
KKR bowling vs PBKS batting
We’ll probably continue to say this throughout the entirety of our IPL 2021 previews but when PBKS get off to a good start then they are always in with a chance of winning. KL Rahul, Agarwal and Gayle all played their part in the 9 wicket victory last time out and they’ll be key again to ensuring PBKS get sufficient runs on the board against KKR.
In that respect, the evergreen Harbhajan Singh does have a very good head to head record against the PBKS top order and if it does look like a slower, turning wicket then KKR may well opt to revert to using Singh in the powerplay as they did for their opening 3 fixtures of IPL 2021.
The key in this match for KKR will surely be to get into the PBKS middle order as early as possible. Aside from the a wonderful cameo from Deepak Hooda in their opening game and a backs to wall knock from Shahrukh Khan, none of the PBKS guys outside the top 3 have spent significant time at the crease.
In that respect, Sunil Narine has done a pretty decent job in the middle overs for KKR since coming into the team and his head to head stats against the PBKS middle order are also impressive.
All IPL player head to head records can be found here
