Match 31 of the 2025 Indian Premier League season brings us a clash between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Punjab Kings at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur on April 15, 2025.
For the game, here are our preview and predictions.
Indian Premier League 2025 | Match 31: Punjab Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders | 19:30 IST, April 15
The defending champions face their former captain, Shreyas Iyer, for the first time since letting him go.
The Kings are coming into this game on the back a massive beating received at the hands of Abhishek Sharma as the SunRisers Hyderabad put up a record chase to stun them. Having chosen to bat first, it was an explosive performance from PBKS as fireworks from Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer, and Marcus Stoinis took them to 245 in their 20 overs. Their bowlers, though, were taken apart by young Sharma as SRH chased the target with eight wickets in hand and nine balls to spare.
Bowling has been PBKS’ biggest concern this season. While their batters have been in red-hot form, the bowlers have failed to deliver. Their top domestic stars Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal have not only gone for plenty of runs but failed to provide breakthroughs as well. Lockie Ferguson had been among the wickets, but the Kiwi quick suffered an injury against SRH and is most likely not going to be available for the KKR game. With his regular bowlers not stepping up, Iyer has had to turn to Glenn Maxwell and Stoinis to fill up the overs. Against KKR’s top-heavy batting lineup, if their bowling doesn’t click, the Kings will struggle to defend whatever target they put up.
On the other hand, the Knight Riders come into this game on the back of a huge win over the Chennai Super Kings, having put up a near-perfect performance. Against CSK, the KKR bowlers were stellar, with the spin trio of Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, and Moeen Ali beginning to look like a threatening combination. With Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora providing crucial breakthroughs in the Powerplay, the defending champions’ bowling unit seems to be coming together perfectly.
In therms of batting, KKR’s southpaw openers Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine have been going hard from the get-go. Captain Ajinkya Rahane has also been in decent nick, keeping the runs flowing while the middle order bats around him. If KKR have an area of concern, it’s their lower-order batting, with Andre Russell not firing yet and the likes of Rinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh yet to get the team over the line.
The Mullanpur ground has turned out to be a high-scoring venue. We should expect another run fest, with the reigning champions our slight favourites for this game given their squad depth and the fact that they’re facing a shell-shocked PBKS side.
Fantasy XI: Quinton de Kock, Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Shashank Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Andre Russell, Moeen Ali, Varun Chakravarthy, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh
Venue: Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur
Winners Prediction: Kolkata Knight Riders
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