Kolkata (West Bengal) [India]: In their Indian Premier League (IPL) matchup with the reigning champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Punjab Kings (PBKS) will be looking to balance their bat and ball in their powerplay.

On Saturday, PBKS and KKR will square off at Eden Gardens. With five victories and three defeats, PBKS has 10 points and is in fifth place. However, KKR is experiencing trouble; they have only won three of their last eight games and are now in seventh place in the standings.

Priyansh Arya (254 runs in eight matches, with a strike rate of 201.58, 24 fours, and 18 sixes), Prabhsimran Singh (209 runs in eight matches, with a strike rate of 168.54, 28 fours, and eight sixes), and Shreyas Iyer (263 runs in eight matches, with a strike rate of 185.21, 17 fours, and 20 sixes) have all put on powerful performances, making PBKS the most formidable team in the powerplay at bat. Despite not being the most reliable scorers, Prabhsimran and Priyansh have made brief appearances in the opening moments, while captain Iyer has sometimes made up for an early loss with some well-timed hitting that exudes style and effort. According to ESPNCricinfo, they have the greatest powerplay run rate of any club at 10.67.

They haven’t been as effective at giving their opponents early scares while bowling, however. With only 10 wickets in eight powerplay phase games, it is tied for the fewest of any clubs, with the Rajasthan Royals coming in second. They have given up 430 runs in 276 balls on the powerplay, along with 50 fours and 16 sixes. In the powerplay, the squad has leaked runs at a rate of 9.34 per over, which is sixth-highest of any team.

Teams:

Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson, Chetan Sakariya, Mayank Markande, Kolkata Knight Riders squad

Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer (c), Josh Inglis (w), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Praveen Dubey, Glenn Maxwell, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Aaron Hardie, Azmatullah Omarzai, Kuldeep Sen, Harnoor Singh, Vishnu Vinod, Musheer Khan, and Pyla Avinash are the Punjab Kings squad.