IPL 2018, 2nd Qualifier: Karthik-led Kolkata have advantage at Eden against Hyderabad

Two-time champions Kolkata will host Kane Williamson-led Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens stadium on Friday, May 25 to book a berth in the Indian Premier League 2018 finals.

The winner of tonight's match will meet MS Dhoni-led Chennai in the IPL's finale on May 27 as team Chennai has already through to the finals after defeating Hyderabad in the Qualifier 1.

It's very ironic when the table toppers at the end of league matches, struggleto reach the finals, now call it carelessness or the lack of performance from their middle-order, Hyderabad have lost four straight games, something that will be a cause of concern for Williamson's side in tonight's game.

Although, Hyderabad have the best bowling unit in the presence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma and Rashid Khan. The bowling side will try to take benefits from the Eden Gardens track but it is not easy to face Dinesh Karthik's sideas the batsmen coming at the 6th and 7th position have potential to score runs.

In the presence of crazy fans at the Eden Gardens, Dinesh Karthikside definitely has an upper hand against Hyderabad.

In the first Qualifier, when Hyderabad had their match in the pocket with Chennai struggling at 62-6 while chasing 140 runs but the bowling strategy backfired in the death overs when Carlos Brathwaite leaked too many runs.

Also, Hyderabad's problem has been their batting which is heavily reliant on skipper Kane Williamson, the current 'Orange Cap' holder with 685 runs at 57.05 average.

In order to resolve it, Shikhar Dhawan will have to rise to the occasion but it is the middle order that has created problems, Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan will have to score in order to help the bowling unit to bowl without pressure.

On the other hand, Dinesh Karthik who will look to go unchanged unless there's an injury in the lineup.

Their biggest strength has been the team's ability to stand up and perform in case someone fails. That we have seen in the Eliminator match when the top batting order was out bowled then middle batting order scored to reach the target.

The clash is going to be very interesting as the result will give another finalist of the tournament.

Watch the preview:

Playing XI (TBC):

Kolkata: Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Javon Searles, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.

Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Shreevats Goswami, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Carlos Brathwaite, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul