Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL Tips: Back Russell to top score with bat and ball

• Choice affair in the offing on Saturday

• Andre Russell an all-round star

• Starc 3/1 for top KKR bowler

• Read about Ed's Betfair Exchange strategy

Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Saturday 23 March, 14:00
TV: Live on Sky Sports

Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad team news

Phil Salt and Dushmanth Chameera, the England batter and Sri Lanka pacer respectively, have replaced Jason Roy and Gus Atkinson in the squad. We don't expect the latter to play.

KKR are pretty settled and they have a choice between Salt and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Spinner Suyash has elite numbers and is a probable super sub for Venkatesh Iyer.

Possible XI: Salt, Venkatesh, Shreyas, Rana, Rinku, Russell, Ramandeep, Narine, Starc, Varun/Suyash, Sakariya

Sunrisers' strategy has been to sign all the 'best' overseas players to deny their rivals the chance to acquire them. Pat Cummins, who performs below the mean, is a lock. Surely Heinrich Klaaasen plays. We expect the likes of Aiden Markam, Marco Jansen, Glenn Phillips and Faz Farooqi to miss out. The same domestic disappointments remain.

Possible XI: Abhishek, Head, Tripathi, Klaasen, Hasaranga, Samad, Sundar, Cummins, Kumar, Natarajan, Markande

Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad pitch report

Runs are expected at Eden Gardens. Twelve of the last 16 IPL first-innings have seen 175.5 or more busted. There a 50/50 split on the toss in that study period, which shows that it can hold.

Kolkata are marginally more likely for runs with a superior rate last term. We will have to pay 180.5 at evens on the overs line. Both for 180 is an even money shot on the filter so Sportsbook's 13/102.30 will be popular.

Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad match odds

Kolkata and Sunrisers cannot be split with 1.991/1 the pair. We suspect KKR may prove to be the better team over the course of the tournament. And we emphasise the word team.

Sunrisers have an enormous task keeping bored, good players happy. They didn't manage it last season and finished bottom.

Cummins is a good egg but this must rank as one of his greatest challenges. They may start better than they finish.

Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad Exchange strategy

With the flat nature of the EG pitch expected to continue, we can expect the team batting first to trade as favourites at the break after racking up a big one.

So from a starting point of around 1.9010/11, we could see 1.608/13 after the first 20 overs. That's quite tight on margins but there's another option.

That drift in the chaser could be used to our advantage because we know the wicket should remain true. There's a chance the team batting second comes into something similar from 2.305/4.

Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad player bets

Andre Russell is standout value with bat and ball for this one. He is [10/1 for top KKR bat and 9/25.50 for top bowler. He has identical win rates on both markets at 28% in the last two years.

Klaasen is 7/24.50 for top SRH bat but we may wait to see where he is batting first. Instead Abhishek Sharma is 9/25.50 with a 32% win rate and surely the opening berth is his to lose. Mitchell Starc is 3/14.00 for top KKR bowler.

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