In a night of several outstanding performances, the Knights overcame a shaky start to come out on top against the Royal Challengers, registering their first victory of the season in comprehensive fashion.
The grass has been trimmed, the pitch has been rolled, the seats sport a new stroke of paint and there is a nervous excitement in the air as the Knights gear up to host Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. This match will be the first home game for the Knights at the Eden Gardens in 3 years after the pandemic forced games to be held in bio-secure bubbles. The Knights go into the game having lost their opening encounter against the Punjab Kings by 7 Runs (D/L method) whilst the Royal Challengers got the better of Mumbai Indians in a one-sided affair at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Among the bowlers, Umesh Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy were the standout performers in the first game having each picked up a wicket and conceded under 7 runs an over. Gurbaz, Venkatesh and Nitish all got off to good starts in Mohali and will be looking to do one better in the coming game in familiar conditions.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have signed England’s Jason Roy for INR 2.8 crore for the TATA IPL 2023 from his base price of INR 1.5 crore. Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out of the tournament owing to a lower back injury while Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has confirmed his unavailability for the season. Roy, who earlier featured in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, last played in the 2021 season for Sunrisers Hyderabad. In 2021, he played five games, scoring 150 runs including a half-century. The 32-year-old has played 64 T20Is for England, scoring 1522 runs at a S/R of 137.61 with 8 fifties.
Budding cricketers around the globe have certain things on their bucket list. Playing at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, one of the Holy Grails of Indian cricket, is surely one of them. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) call it their home, and an Indian Premier League (IPL) match taking place under lights at this hallowed stadium has always been a sight to behold. The Knights have won 45 of their 74 matches played at this venue, which equates to a win percentage of 60.81%. In the first two editions of the IPL alone, KKR won 9 of their 14 home games at the Eden. Former KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir leads the IPL scoring charts at the Eden with 1,407 runs. He is followed by former Knights Robin Uthappa (1,159 runs), Yusuf Pathan (861 runs), and Dinesh Karthik (621 runs). From the current KKR squad only Andre Russell features among the top five batters of this elite list with 699 IPL runs in Kolkata. Among the bowlers, Sunil Narine has been the highest wicket taker in the IPL at the Eden with 56 scalps. He is followed by Piyush Chawla (41), Andre Russell (27), Shakib Al Hasan (21) and Kuldeep Yadav (21). As daunting a task as it is, we have selected five of KKR’s finest outings at the Eden Gardens. However, this list is subjective, so please feel free to share with us what you feel are KKR’s top five matches at the said venue.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz made a swift start to his TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) career even though Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ended up on the losing side in their season opener against Punjab Kings at Mohali’s IS Bindra Stadium on April 1, Saturday. Chasing a target of 192 set by PBKS, KKR suffered an early slump, losing their first two wickets (Mandeep Singh and Anukul Roy) within the first two overs. However, Gurbaz, during his brief stay at the crease, did provide some impetus to KKR’s chase. The Afghanistan wicketkeeper-batter smacked the TATA IPL’s most expensive player Sam Curran for a huge six over long-on, off only the second ball he faced. He then flicked Curran for a boundary over deep midwicket off the very next delivery before presenting the full face of the bat to hit another boundary over mid-off, this time off the first delivery of Curran’s second over.
Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) lost their TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season opener to Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 7 runs via DLS method in a rain-affected contest at Mohali’s IS Bindra Stadium earlier today (Saturday, April 1). Led by Nitish Rana, KKR won the toss and elected to bowl first. The Knights named Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Tim Southee as the four overseas players in their playing XI. The hosts got off to a flying start as openers Prabhsimran Singh smashed 23 runs off the first 12 balls of the PBKS innings before being caught by Rahmanullah Gurbaz off Tim Southee’s bowling.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will begin their TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023campaign with an away clash against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at Mohali’s IS Bindra Stadium on Saturday (April 1) at 3.30 PM. The two-time champions reached Chandigarh on March 29, Wednesday. In the absence of their regular skipper Shreyas Iyer, who is currently nursing a back injury, Nitish Rana has been entrusted with the task of leading the side. The Delhi-born batter enjoyed a rich vein of form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last year as he finished as the fourth-highest run-getter with 317 runs in 8 matches at an average of 45.28 and a strike-rate of 139.03, including a hundred.
The sixteenth edition of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) begins today (March 31, Friday) in its original home-and-away format. Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will kickstart their quest for a third title with an away clash against Punjab Kings on April 1, Saturday. Unlike the previous editions, TATA IPL 2023 is all set to witness a host of new rules that have been introduced to adda new strategic dimension to the tournament.
Two-time TATA Indian Premier League(IPL) champions Kolkata Knight Riders’ season opener is knocking on the door. The Knights will travel to Mohali to face Punjab Kings in their first game on April 1. In the absence of regular skipper Shreyas Iyer, who has been recovering from a back injury, Delhi-born batter Nitish Rana will lead KKR. In a press statement issued on Monday (March 27), KKR also expressed hope that Iyer “will recover and participate at some stage in the IPL 2023 edition”.
INDIA, MARCH 28, 2023: Shah Rukh Khan, the co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), launched the ‘Knight Club app’ with a fun video, highlighting the tagline "Ekdum Fatafati App." The app aims to bring all the excitement live and right into the palms of the fans while offering a range of features that will keep them engaged and entertained across the cricketing season.
Kolkata Knight Riders today announced that Nitish Rana would captain the side in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, who is recovering from a back injury. While we are hopeful that Shreyas will recover and participate at some stage in the IPL 2023 edition, we feel fortunate that Nitish, with the captaincy experience having led his state side in white ball cricket and the IPL experience he has had with KKR since 2018, will do a great job. We are also confident that under Head Coach Chandrakant Pandit and the support staff, he will get all the support needed off the field, and the highly experienced leaders in the squad will provide all support that Nitish may need on the field. We wish him the best in his new role and Shreyas a full and speedy recovery.
Kolkata Knight Rider’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored a sensible 49-ball 44 in the second T20I of the three-match series on Sunday (March 26) to help Afghanistan register their maiden series victory over Pakistan in the shortest format. After affecting a couple of dismissals with the gloves on, the young wicketkeeper-batter led Afghanistan’s chase at the UAE’s Sharjah Cricket Stadium as they defeated Pakistan by seven wickets and with one ball remaining to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. In fact, it’s the first time that Afghanistan have won a series against an ICC top-six ranked country. Batting first, Pakistan got off to a dismal start as they lost their first three batters (Saim Ayub, Mohammad Haris and Abduallah Shafique) inside the first four overs. Both Ayub and Shafique were caught out by Gurbaz as they fell prey to Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq respectively for a duck each
Memories of playing at the Holy Grail of Indian cricket flooded the Knights’ minds as they returned to the Eden Gardens to train in full swing for the sixteenth edition of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL). Having trained at Eden’s indoor facility on two consecutive days (March 20 and 21), the Purple & Gold brigade had their first open session at Eden on March 22, Wednesday. The players naturally felt emotional as they returned to their home turf after a three-year COVID-enforced hiatus. Scores of fans greeted the Knights with “Ami KKR chants” as the team bus made its way to the hallowed stadium. “I am coming back to Eden as a Knight after three years, especially for a night practice session. All the memories from the first two years (2018 and 2019) are coming back to me now. This was our home turf, this was everything to us. I can recall each innings of mine here. Each and every match we played and won here…All the memories are coming back,” a nostalgic NitishRana told kkr.in before hitting the nets on Wednesday.
Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Punjab Kings in their inaugural TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 fixturein Mohali on April 1. The two-time TATA IPL champions began training in Kolkata on March 22 (Monday), after all the support staff members and several players of the Purple & Gold brigade arrived in the city. Under the stewardship of their new Head Coach Chandrakant Pandit, the Knights trained at the Eden Gardens indoor facility on Monday. The following afternoon, they were supposed to train at Salt Lake’s Jadavpur University Campus Ground. However, heavy downpour forced the team to move to the Eden Gardens indoor facility for a short training session.
