Chris Lynn can lead Kolkata Knight Riders charge

Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals
Sky Sports Mix & Cricket red button, 2.30pm Wednesday

Rajasthan Royals beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 30 runs on Saturday to make it four victories in five games and claim the final place in the IPL playoffs when Mumbai indians and Kings XI Punjab both lost on Sunday.

But they are 31-18 outsiders to win this first eliminator in Kolkata because they are without the services of Jos Buttler, whose rapid knocks of 82, 95 not out and 94 not out effectively secured the first three successes, and because the one defeat in this fine run of form was to their hosts, the Knight Riders, at Eden Gardens.

The Royals unravelled to 142 all out, after Buttler was dismissed for 39, and Kolkata strolled home by six wickets with ace Aussie opener Chris Lynn making 45.

Lynn made a circumspect start to the campaign when returning from injury but he is motoring now and worth backing at 3-1 to top score for the Knight Riders again.

His 55 underpinned their third straight win on Saturday, against Sunrisers Hyderabad, and he has headed his side's runcharts on four more occasions with a best score of 74.

Fellow overseas stars Sunil Narine and Andre Russell have also been key components of Kolkata's surge into the playoffs while Kuldeep Yadav put Rajasthan into a spin with 4-30.

The Royals, also without Ben Stokes, have struggled against turn all tournament and their hosts have a top-notch trio of twirlers in Kuldeep, Narine and Piyush Chawla.

Recommendation
C Lynn top Kolkata Knight Riders runscorer
1pt 3-1 SkyBet, 188Bet

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