Gujarat Lions
$1.90 at Sportsbet.com
Table position: 4th
IPL form: L L L W L
Kolkata Knight Riders
$1.95 at William Hill
Table position: 2nd
IPL form: W W L W L
After a fast start to the season, Gujarat Lions are stumbling towards the playoffs in their maiden Indian Premier League campaign.
Four defeats in their last five matches have seen the competition’s new boys slide from first to fourth in the space of a week.
The latest of those setbacks was a 144-run mauling at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore – a record winning margin in the IPL.
The Lions failed utterly to tame the brilliance of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, both of whom hit centuries in what proved to be a wholly unreachable total of 248.
Gujarat’s batting lineup crumbled for only 104 in the absence of skipper Suresh Raina, who missed an IPL match for the first time in nine years to be with his wife and newborn daughter.
Now four points adrift of top-of-the-table Sunrisers Hyderabad, the infant franchise will almost certainly need to win at least one of their remaining two fixtures to qualify for the finals ahead of RCB or Delhi Daredevils.
They do, however, have the upper hand on Kolkata Knight Riders, having beaten them on their own patch less than two weeks ago.
And the Lions’ task will be made that much easier this time by the absence of Andre Russell, who will miss KKR’s trip to western India with a leg injury.
The Jamaican allrounder has starred throughout IPL 2016, taking 15 wickets at a 14.6 strike rate and bashing 188 runs in the lower-middle order.
That’s a big hole to fill for Umesh Yadav – the man most likely to take Russell’s spot in the Kolkata pace attack.
Knight Riders also suffered the wrath of the Bangalore top order in their last outing as Kolhi, de Villiers and Chris Gayle ran down 183 with nine wickets to spare.
A healthy net run rate (+0.280) sees them sitting second, nevertheless, and a win on Thursday would make them hard to shift from the top four places.
Last Gujarat Lions XI
- Dwayne Smith
- Brendon McCullum (deputy captain)
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Dinesh Karthik
- Aaron Finch
- Dwayne Bravo
- Akshdeep Nath
- Praveen Kumar
- Dhawal Kulkarni
- Pravin Tambe
- Shivil Kaushik
Last Kolkata Knight Riders XI
- Robin Uthappa
- Gautam Gambhir (captain)
- Manish Pandey
- Yusuf Pathan
- Andre Russell
- Suryakumar Yadav
- Shakib Al Hasan
- Piyush Chawla
- Sunil Narine
- Ankit Rajpoot
- Morne Morkel
Brendon McCullum IPL betting
Gujarat could hardly dream of a more experienced and capable player at the top of the order in their debut season.
It’s been a streaky campaign so far for McCullum, however, as a hot spell of three straight 40+ scores was followed immediately by a treble of single-figure returns.
He has only one half-century among his 269 runs this season, and he hasn’t passed 30 in his last five knocks.
But we’ve seen before that form matters little to a selfless, aggressive and boundlessly talented player like McCullum, who always looks to lead from the front and attack from the very first ball.
If he keeps his wicket intact early and gets a few out of the middle, the former New Zealand captain could unleash some serious pain on a Russell-less KKR bowling unit.
Top Lions batsman – $4 (Bet365)
Man of the match – $7.50 (Bet365)
Gautam Gambhir T20 bets
Now a certified veteran at 34 years of age, Gambhir remains one of the most bankable openers in Twenty20 cricket.
The KKR captain has amassed 449 runs this term, passing 50 five times in his 12 innings.
After a pair single-digit scores in his previous two hits, the skilful lefty recaptured his touch with an ultimately useless 51 in the recent nine-wicket defeat to RCB.
Alongside opening partner Robin Uthappa, who has 333 runs of his own in IPL 2016, Gambhir is capable of taking down any bowling attack in the competition.
Top Knight Riders batsman – $3.50 (William Hill)
Man of the match – $7.50 (Bet365)