Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will face each other in Match No.68 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 on Saturday, May 20 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The Knight Riders, led by Nitish Rana, are in a must-win position from here on. They are placed in the bottom half of the points table with 12 points and a net run rate of -0.256 thanks to wins in sex out of 13 matches. They will go into the game after beating the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by six wickets a couple of days ago at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Mumbai.
The Super Giants, led by Krunal Pandya, on the other hand, are placed in the top three, but are yet to make their way through to the playoffs. But a win in their last and final league game will help them qualify for the next round.
They will be high on confidence after beating the Mumbai Indians (MI) by five runs in their previous game at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. Mohsin Khan bowled brilliantly in the last over to make sure that the Super Giants snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
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KKR vs LSG head-to-head record
The two teams do not have an overly long history. But the Super Giants have dominated the Knights thus far.
Here is a look at how the current KKR vs LSG head-to-head record stands:
| Matches played | 2 |
| KKR won | 0 |
| LSG won | 2 |
| N/R | 0 |
KKR vs LSG IPL match results
As mentioned earlier, the Knights are yet to beat the Super Giants in any of the two meetings. Whether or not they are able to turn their fortunes around remains to be seen.
Here is a more detailed look at how this rivalry has unfolded:
| Date | Winner | Won By | Venue |
| 18-May-2022 | Lucknow Super Giants | 2 runs | Navi Mumbai |
| 07-May-2022 | Lucknow Super Giants | 75 runs | Mumbai |
KKR vs LSG IPL stats
Most runs
Quinton de Kock is the leading run-scorer in matches between the two teams. The left-handed batter has scored 190 runs and is in excellent form with the bat in hand. KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, who are both out of IPL 2023, are second and third in the list. Andre Russell and Rinku Singh are fourth and fifth in the list with 50 and 46 runs respectively.
| Player name | Runs | |||
| Quinton de Kock | 190 | |||
| KL Rahul | 68 | |||
| Shreyas Iyer | 56 | |||
| Andre Russell | 50 | |||
| Rinku Singh | 46 | |||
Most wickets
Left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan is the top wicket-taker in games between the two teams. The southpaw has four wickets to his name, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder and Avesh Khan have three wickets apiece. Holder is no longer with LSG and is a part of the Rajasthan Royals. Ravi Bishnoi also has two wickets to his name.
| Player name | Wickets |
| Mohsin Khan | 4 |
| Marcus Stoinis | 3 |
| Jason Holder | 3 |
| Avesh Khan | 3 |
| Ravi Bishnoi | 2 |
Best match in the Kolkata Knight Riders vs Lucknow Super Giants head-to-head
Back on May 18, 2022, the Knights and Super Giants locked horns in an absolute thriller at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai. The match was a high-scoring affair and in the end, the Super Giants won by two runs.
Here is how the match unfolded
After opting to bat first, the Super Giants racked up a huge score of 210 for no loss in 20 overs. Quinton de Kock was the star of the show for LSG after he scored 140 runs off 70 balls with the help of 10 fours and as many sixes. His opening partners, KL Rahul, on the other hand, could not quite get going. He stayed not out on 68 runs off 51 balls with three fours and four sixes.
The Knight Riders used six bowlers, but none of them were able to give their team a breakthrough. Sunil Narine was the pick of the KKR bowlers after he finished with decent figures of 4-0-27-0. Tim Southee and Andre Russell had off days as they leaked 102 runs off seven overs.
The Knights lost the early wickets of Venkatesh Iyer and Abhijeet Tomar, but Nitish Rana and skipper Shreyas Iyer scored 42 and 50 respectively to bring their team right back into the match.
Sam Billings also scored 36 runs off 24 balls with two fours and three sixes. With 61 runs needed off the last 19 balls, hopes seemed to be over for KKR. But Rinku Singh and Narine kept the Knights in the hunt with some big shots.
With 21 runs needed off the last over, Rinku hit Marcus Stoinis for 16 runs off the first three balls to bring the target down to five off three. But after he holed out in the deep, the curtains came down on KKR’s campaign.
