To match or even surpass the Royals, KKR have the biggest stars in Andre Russell to go along with reigning World Cup winning English skipper Eoin Morgan
For a team that looked at ease all along, it was their first defeat in the UAE leg -- and three from 11 matches this season -- as Delhi struggled to get going against KKR bowlers who made full use of the slow surface after opting to bowl.
KKR have so far failed to come together as a unit and slipped to sixth in the table after starting the tournament on a high against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
A testimony to KKR's problems has been the fact that 20 players have played in 12 games. There has not been a single game, where the playing XI has been retained, making the outfit look completely unsettled.
Desperate to not miss a single game, a big-hitting star has requested BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, on behalf of the players from both countries, to lessen the quarantine period to three days.
Morgan's astute captaincy in using his bowling resources was the highlight as KKR had bowled out MI for a modest 152.
Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Eoin Morgan has hailed his bowlers as 'superstars' of the team, saying their outstanding performance in the first two games of the second leg of IPL in the UAE has allowed the openers to play with freedom.
Karthik regained his batting form with an unbeaten 97 off 50 balls, helping KKR recover from 49 for 3 to a challenging 176
Shubman Gill has the repertoire of strokes and can any position but given a choice, the young turk would prefer to open regularly in the shortest format of the game.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India is seriously contemplating reviewing the West Indies players' participation in the cash-rich Indian Premier League as the ongoing series ended abruptly today due to visiting team's payment dispute with their own cricket board.
Surprised at the call up, Kolkata Knight Riders' South African recruit Johan Botha, who was brought in as replacement for injured Aussie Chris Lynn, said he's fresh after a three-week break and ready for the rigours of IPL-8.
Still recovering from a hamstring injury, swashbuckling batsman Chris Gayle was on Wednesday left out of the West Indies' 15-member squad for the One-Day International series against India next month.
Photos from the ongoing IPL 2022 match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals
Having managed to field a strong side in the last minute amid a contract row with their Board (WICB), West Indies captain Darren Sammy today said their aim is to bring back the World Twenty20 title to restore the faith among the Caribbean fans. "As of now we are in the World Twenty20 and that's what our focus is on. It's just cricket. At the end we are professionals, but this event means a lot to us as a group. The next World Twenty20 is in 2020 and a few of our guys won't be part of that event so this one is very important for us," Sammy said. "Everyone's focus is on winning. A win here will mean a lot to us and people at home, especially in the current situation of our cricket. It's not just about the men team but the women team as well. "The message is cricket. Once you step out on the cricket field you should not be worried about contracts and other stuff. It's about making your country proud," the skipper of the 2012 World T20 champion side in Sri Lanka told reporters in Kolkata. Presently ranked world no 2 in Twenty20 rankings, West Indies cricket was in serious crisis involving players' contracts in the run up to the upcoming event and a second string side was expected to be named had the row been not resolved at the last minut
Babar Azam hit his maiden century while spinner Mohammad Nawaz grabbed four wickets as Pakistan thrashed the West Indies by 111 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method in the first day-night international on Friday. Azam's rapid-fire 139-ball 120 helped Pakistan post a challenging 284-9 in a match reduced to 49 overs a side due to a 70-minute floodlight failure at Sharjah Stadium in the UAE. West Indies -- set 287 to win -- never got close and folded at 175 in 38.4 overs.
A miffed Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir slammed his team after a stunning batting collapse which resulted in their 10-run loss to Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League in Ahmedabad.
Kolkata Knight Riders may be having a good time in the ongoing IPL season, having registered six victories from nine matches, but head coach Jacques Kallis warned against complacency, saying the team had slipped out of contention from a similar position last season.
Young off-spinner Arjun Nair, the Canberra-born son of Indian immigrants, has been included in the New South Wales (NSW) squad for their upcoming Sheffield Shield match against South Australia.
Bollywood superstar and principal owner Shah Rukh Khan on Sunday cheered for Kolkata Knight Riders from the stands even as his new-look team, under new skipper Dinesh Karthik, looked to regain some lost ground in the post-Gautam Gambhir era at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Robin Uthappa was elegance personified during his 52-ball 80 as he powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a convincing six-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match in Cuttack on Wednesday.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present the best performing players in IPL-11 in Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings.
Captain Virat Kohli described fast bowler Navdeep Saini as a raw talent who has a bright future after he made an impressive India debut in the four-wicket victory over the West Indies in the first T20 International, in Lauderhill, USA, on Saturday.
On paper, Kolkata Knight Riders are overwhelming favourites against King's XI Punjab.
Any "tinkering" in the IPL format to make space for it in the coronavirus-hit calendar will not be acceptable to Kolkata Knight Riders CEO Venky Mysore, who on Thursday asserted that all the franchises want the T20 league to be held in its complete form. The IPL was postponed indefinitely after a lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic came into force in March.
India Test skipper Virat Kohli was among the few cricketers who received a higher actual salary according to the salary details of the retained Indian Premier League players listed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Friday.
For the Gujarat Lions to roar, their top-heavy batting order must first win in unison against a consistent KKR bowling attack.
With age comes experience and few know it better than West Indies Test captain Denesh Ramdin, who still regrets an unsavoury act of flashing a note towards Vivian Richards after scoring a century against England in Birmingham back in 2012.
Rajneesh Gupta presents statistical summary of Kolkata Knight Riders and much more.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders would look to return to winning ways.
SunRisers Hyderabad has the biggest purse while Kolkata Knight Riders has the slimmest purse.
Expressing disappointment over his team's second consecutive loss in the Indian Premier League on Saturday, Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody said they would reflect on the performance and try to turn around the fortunes quickly.
Mumbai Indians have an eight-match winning streak against Kolkata Knight Riders with an overall 18-5 head-to-head record.
Kuldeep is in his fourth season with the KKR but it's only in the recent past that he has cemented his place in the Indian team as its go-to spinner along with Yuzvendra Chahal in the limited overs game.
Royal Challengers Bangalore will stand in the way of two-time former champions Kolkata Knight Riders' bid to make it to the play-offs in a mouthwatering Indian Premier League encounter.
Virat Kohli's tenure as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore may have ended without an IPL triumph but the franchise will nonetheless 'celebrate' his contributions over the years, said the team's pacer Harshal Patel.
Chahar started the rot for KKR early in their innings when he trapped opener Chris Lynn in front of the wickets as the Aussie missed a pull off a delivery that kept low. Lynn was sent back inside the first over for a duck. He came into the equation in the next over when he took a brilliant catch, running backwards, to dismiss Sunil Narine for just 6 off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh.
'Sometimes we arrange a Zoom call just for him to say hello to the players, that's about it.' 'But otherwise, no, no direct talk, it's never happened, even in a normal year.' 'After the game, you win, you lose, SRK is there to encourage the team, give them hugs.'
The threat of West Indies being forced to field a second string side at the World Twenty20 was averted on Sunday when 12 of 13 players in the original squad signed the contracts which had caused a standoff with the board.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders take on Rajasthan Royals at the Brabourne stadium, in Mumbai, on Saturday, in a perform-or-perish contest, as the race for play-off berths in IPL 8 hots up.
A look at how the teams stack up ahead of the mega auction.
