IPL 2017, RPS vs KKR: Face off
Rising Pune Supergiant host Kolkata Knight Riders at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. The Kolkata franchise are second in the standings while Pune have put aside their poor start to the season to jump to fourth.
Having beaten Mumbai in their last encounter, Pune would go in confidently to face Kolkata at home. The Gambhir-led side bowled out Bangalore for the lowest ever IPL total and are not short on confidence themselves.
Extra Cover: IPL 2017, RPS vs KKR: 5 winning factors
Both teams would look to continue their winning momentum in Pune and this makes it an enthralling contest to look forward to. Here, we take a look at the stats of their probable eleven and compare them purely on the basis of the IPL stats listed below.
| Rising Pune Supergiant | Kolkata Knight Riders | Who’s Better |
| Ajinkya Rahane | Gautam Gambhir | Even-Stevens |
| Runs-2834, Avg-34.14, SR-121.27 | Runs-3878, Avg-31.27,SR-124.94 | |
| Rahul Tripathi | Sunil Narine | KKR |
| Runs-178, Avg-35.6, SR-152.14 | Runs-168, Avg-14, SR-142.37 Wkts-89, Avg-19.92, Eco- 6.2 | |
| Steven Smith | Manish Pandey | RPS |
| Runs-1455, Avg-37.31, SR-135.73 | Runs-2079, Avg-28.48, SR-120.87 | |
| MS Dhoni | Robin Uthappa | Even-Stevens |
| Runs-3400, Avg-38.64, SR-137.71 | Runs-3575, Avg-29.55, SR-129.91 | |
| Manoj Tiwary | Suryakumar Yadav | RPS |
| Runs-1461, Avg-29.83, SR-116.78 | Runs-547, Avg-20.26, SR-129.01 | |
| Ben Stokes | Yusuf Pathan | KKR |
| Runs-127, Avg-18.14, SR-136.56 Wkts-6, Avg-30.83, Eco-7.4 | Runs-2866, Avg-30.82, SR-146.37 Wkts-41, Avg-33.39, Eco-7.35 | |
| Dan Christian | Colin de Grandhomme | RPS |
| Runs-367, Avg-18.35, SR- 118.39 Wkts-21, Avg-34, Eco-7.96 | Runs-1, Avg-0.33, SR-16.67 Wkts-4, Avg-7.75, Eco-6.64 | |
| Washington Sundar | Chris Woakes | KKR |
| Wkts-1, Avg-45, Eco-6 .43 | Runs-31, Avg-10.33, SR-88.57 Wkts-10, Avg-20.5, Eco-9.32 | |
| Shardul Thakur | Umesh Yadav | KKR |
| Wkts-5, Avg-33.2, Eco-9.76 | Wkts-81, Avg-30.15, Eco-8.43 | |
| Jaydev Unadkat | Nathan Coulter-Nile | KKR |
| Wkts-37, Avg-29.54, Eco-8.44 | Wkts-29, Avg-19.83, Eco-7.58 | |
| Imran Tahir | Kuldeep Yadav | RPS |
| Wkts-39, Avg-21.51, Eco-8.45 | Wkts-12, Avg-20.42, Eco-7.9 |
RPS 4 - 5 KKR
While Kolkata seem to have the edge from the analysis based on stats, Pune's recent form suggests that they are no pushovers. While much of Kolkata's success has come at home, it remains to be seen how effective their new pace attack is outside the relaid pitch in Eden.