7.00 pm ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out is live. Ian Bishop, Ambati Rayudu and Matt Roller are on this evening, with Raunak Kapoor. Do watch below.
Shreyas Iyer has won the toss and Punjab Kings are going to bat. He says the last two games here have been won by the team batting first, and expects dew to not be much of a factor later. He can’t remember his batting first XI, so we’ll need to wait for the team sheets. It looks like Xavier Bartlett has got his cap though.
Ajinkya Rahane says KKR wanted to bowl first anyway. They have made one change, bringing in Anrich Nortje for Moeen Ali.
Stoinis isn’t playing for PBKS tonight, Josh Inglis is in. Bartlett comes in for the injured Ferguson.
PBKS’ batting-first XI: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Priyansh Arya, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Josh Inglis (wk), 5 Nehal Wadhera, 6 Shashank singh, 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Marcon Jansen, 9 Xavier Bartlett, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
PBKS’ impact sub options: Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Shedge, Harpreet, Pravin Dubey
KKR’s bowling-first XI: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 4 Venkatesh Iyer, 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Ramandeep Singh, 8 Harshit Rana, 9 Anrich Nortje, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Varun Chakravarthy
KKR’s impact sub options: Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia.
Dpk: “Why Stoinis isn’t playing?” Not sure yet.
Big Dave: “What has Moeen Ali done wrong to get dropped every other game? Bowled a maiden wicket over in the powerplay last game, took a catch too – what more do you want from a player?” Probably a decision based on the conditions in New Chandigarh – some teams have been pretty objective about leaving out players who have performed well if they feel they aren’t a fit for the conditions on the day.
yogis: “Smart change to go for Inglis who is a better player against spin than Stoinis. “
6.55 pm Tonight’s winner will break into the top four in the points table. We have four teams on eight points at the moment, two on six (the two playing today) and four on four points. So not much separating top from bottom yet.
MI and CSK had crucial wins over the last two days, so this middle phase of the IPL is all set for a tightly contested race towards the playoffs. Who do you reckon will make it?
Big Dave: “KKR with Moeen Ali: 3 games, 3 wins. Without him: 3 games, 3 losses. Just saying.”
Jai: “People get fixated on Maxwell’s batting when is bowling is pretty effective. He has a knack for taking crucial wickets. His fielding is also very good. “
6.40 pm KKR haven’t managed to string two wins together this season, but are coming into tonight’s game after crushing CSK in Chennai. They do need to get on a bit of a roll.
One of the big talking points for them this season has been Andre Russell. Or rather, the absence of Andre Russell. He’s batted in only four of six games so far and faced 20 balls, scoring 17 runs. He was so crucial to their success last year.
Russell, though, plays a role for KKR off the field too. Here’s what Ramandeep Singh had to say in an exclusive interview: “Imagine someone of Russell’s stature coming with me for an optional net, and telling the coaches, ‘don’t worry about Raman, I’ve got him sorted’. He didn’t need to do that, but for him to tag along to training, watch from behind, give me his inputs – it’s a very big thing. We speak a lot on and off the field.”
Richard: “Stoinis has hit the last four balls he received in the IPL for six. It is hard to see what more PBKS could expect from him.” Indeed he did, and handed Mohammed Shami the second most expensive IPL figures ever. But before that he hadn’t done much and PBKS have won their games largely on the contributions of their Indian batters.
Mustafa Moudi: “Should Punjab stick with Maxwell is the Most Important Discussion but I would also like to add another one – Should KKR Stick with Quinton De Kock or Not. Barring his 97* against RR, he could only score 44 Runs in 5 innings at 8.80 per innings. They have a Like-for-Like Replacement option in Gurbaz !!”
Caleb: “If Maxwell could play his first few shots sensibly and not go for the reverse-sweep or Switch hit first ball, He would be scoring more runs than he has scored so far.” But then he wouldn’t be the genius that he can be either, would he?
6.20 pm Good evening, and welcome to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball coverage of Match 31 in IPL 2025 – it’s Punjab Kings hosting Kolkata Knight Riders in New Chandigarh. I’m George Binoy, your commentator for tonight.
KKR are fifth on the points table, and PBKS are sixth. Both level on six points separated by NRR, and there are four teams above them on eight points. So pretty big stakes riding on tonight’s game.
It’s also Shreyas Iyer vs KKR tonight. Here’s a short history lesson: he led KKR to the IPL title last season, wasn’t retained by them, went into the auction, KKR bid for him but dropped out at INR 10 CR, and PBKS eventually bought him for INR 26.75 CR and made him their captain in the hope he will deliver their maiden IPL title, or at the very least a place in the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
Shreyas’s batting is dramatically improved from last season. He had a strike rate of 146 in IPL 2024. This season his strike rate so far is 208. That increase is among the highest for a batter this season. He’s also improved his game against the short ball, which used to be a problem earlier.
PBKS, though, have a few issues leading into this game. Yuzvendra Chahal is having a curiously quiet season, Lockie Ferguson is out of the season with injury, and they are getting very little from Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell.