Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Qualifier 1 : The play off matches in IPL 2024 start from Tuesday (May 21). It will feature the first qualifier match between first placed Kolkata Knight Riders and second placed Sunrisers Hyderabad in the league stage. The two teams will face each other at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad at 7:30 PM.

What is special is that both these teams have played tremendous style of cricket this year. The batsmen of both the teams are preparing to score 100 runs in the powerplay itself.

Both these teams have easily crossed the 200-run mark this year. The bowling of both the teams is also excellent. Both the franchises have strong squads. Here we are going to know about the top-5 pairs of this match. A tough fight can be seen between these pairs in the first qualifier match.

Sunil Narine-Pat Cummins

After being mentored by Kolkata, Gautam Gambhir made Sunil Narine the opener and the player put in a strong performance. Narine is a tough challenge to stop in the powerplay. Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins has a lot of experience and it remains to be seen whether Cummins's experience is successful in stopping Narine in such situations or Narine comes out on top. The way Narine is batting this season, it is not easy to stop him.

Travis Head- Mitchell Starc

Travis Head has been the most important link in Hyderabad's batting this season. This batsman created a headache for the bowlers by showing his aggressive style. But Kolkata have the weapons to stop this player. Head is from Australia and Kolkata has Australia's Mitchell Starc. In such a situation this fight can become more interesting.

Abhishek Sharma-Harshit Rana

Head was well supported by his opening partner Abhishek Sharma. This left-handed batsman has also scored runs in an aggressive manner by batting powerfully. The young player from Hyderabad will face the young player Harshit Rana from Kolkata. Rana has bowled well this season. He has taken 16 wickets in 11 matches. Abhishek has scored 467 runs in 13 matches.

Henik Klaasen- Varun Chakraborty/Narine

Henrik Klaasen has established himself as one of the most dangerous batsmen in T20 in recent times. The ease with which he takes the ball out of bounds is something to behold. Klaasen has been instrumental in taking Hyderabad to the playoffs this season. However, Kolkata have two mystery spinners who can stop Klaassen.

Sunil Narine and Varun Chakraborty are mystery spinners. Both balls are difficult to understand. Klaasen comes in to bat in the middle overs and may face both of them in such situations.

Andre Russell-T Natarajan

Everyone has seen what havoc Andre Russell's aggressive batting can wreak. If Russell's bat works, Kolkata's scoreboard will run faster. Russell plays the role of the team's finisher and will face Hyderabad's star death bowler T Natarajan. Natarajan is known for his accurate yorkers. The match between these two is sure to be worth watching.